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AMERICAN WOMEN 
AND THE WORLD WAR 



AMERICAN WOMEN 
AND THE WORLD WAR 



BY 
IDA CLYDE CLARKE 



AUTHOR OF RECORD KO. 83' 




D. APPLETON AND COMPANY 

NEW YORK LONDON 

1918 



H/liUir ■' Vr^M^ 



lies 53 



Copyright, 1918, by 
D. APPLETON AND COMPANY 



4 



^\^ 



^^ 



FEINTED IN THE ITNITED STATES OT AMERICA 

MAR 2 1918 

©CI.A492454 



A poor Scandinavian woman in Iowa cheerfully 
signed a food pledge card, believing it meant that the 
Government agents would confiscate her canned fruits 
and vegetables, and asking only for more time so that 
she could get more done for her country. To this 
patriotic, self-sacrificing woman, and to many, many 
others in quiet homes, far from the vast sweep of the 
world's tragic events, whose names do not appear in 
this or any other written record, I dedicate this book. 



FOREWORD 

The purpose of this booK is twofold: first, to dis- 
cover to American women themselves their tre- 
mendous opportunitie.3 and responsibilites in the 
present world conflict; second, to record in a form 
that is in some degree permanent the actual begin- 
nings of the greatest massed effort of women the world 
has ever known. History has not been attempted, be- 
cause history has not yet been made; events of en- 
gaging interest, often of international import, follow 
each other with lightning-like rapidity, and scarcely 
can a situation be described before one more vital, 
more interesting, develops. But if this book shall 
serve as an inspiration, or shall form the ground- 
work of a future history of woman's part in the war, 
one of its chief purposes will have been accomplished. 

I wish particularly to emphasize one fact. The 
basis of the story I have used of the work in the vari- 
ous states is the organization of the Woman's Com- 
mittee of the Council of National Defense. In every 
state, the work of individual organizations has been 
of supreme value — the Federated Clubs, Daughters of 
the American Revolution, Young Women's Christian 
Association, Woman's Christian Temperance Union, 
Congress of Mothers and Parent-Teachers Associa- 
tion, Council of Jewish Women, National League for 
Woman's Service, and scores of other great organiza- 
tions of women have worked intelligently, unceas- 
ingly, and to fine purpose, in every state. But in each 

vii 



FOREWORD 

case I have sought information only from the State 
Chairman of the Woman's Committee of the Council 
of National Defense, because this Committee was ap- 
pointed by the Council of National Defense, and was 
charged with the duty of coordinating the war work 
of existing organizations of women, and therefore its 
authority and its province are not to be questioned. 
Where reports from the states seem to be brief or 
inadequate, it does not signify any lack of patriotism 
or enthusiasm either on the part of individual or- 
ganizations or individual women. It usually means 
that, because of some uncontrollable local condition, 
organization of the Woman's Committee was delayed, 
or that the State Chairman was "too busy doing 
things to write about them." 

The book was made possible because of the unfailing 
courtesy and the kindly personal interest of the offi- 
cials of the Woman 's Committee of the Council of Na- 
tional Defense and the Committee on Public Infor- 
mation, of which Mr. George Creel is Chairman 
and Mrs. Clara Sears Taylor Director Division of 
Woman's War Work. These and other national 
centers of war activities in Washington were always 
open to me, and to them as well as to hundreds of 
women from Maine to California, I wish to make 
grateful acknowledgment. 

As an American woman, I feel a sense of distinct 
pride, of high privilege, in presenting to the public 
this wonderful story — a story transcribed by me but 
written in golden deeds by twenty million loyal- 
hearted women in every state of our great American 
Union. 

Ida Clyde Clarke. 



CONTENTS 

PART I 
THE WOMAN^S COMMITTEE 

CHAPTER PAGE 

I Introductory 3 

II The Woman's Committee Created . . 17 

The creation of the Woman's Committee 
— Its purpose, as set forth by the Sec- 
retary of War — Its general plan of or- 
ganization and operation — Some of its 
early activities. 

III Organization 35 

The current of inspiration is turned on 
from the Woman's Committee at Wash- 
ington — Wheels of organization begin 
to turn in the States — A model town — 
General plan of work adopted by 
Woman's Committee. 

IV Registration 44 

Registration of America's woman power 
begun by many private organizations — 
Confusion results — That taken by the 
Woman's Committee recognized as of- 
ficial by Government — All organizations 
then cooperate for common good and 
work proceeds throughout the nation. 

V Food Conservation 61 

Food production — Food conservation 
and home economics — "Food will win 
the war," says Mr. Hoover — Gigantic 
task is assigned to women — Back yard 
gardens yield crop valued at $350,000,- 
000 — Secretary Houston's appeal — Mr. 
Pack's great work. 
ix 



CONTENTS 

CHAPTER PACK 

VI Child Welfare 74 

Children's Bureau under Miss Julia 
Lathrop — General Federation of Wom- 
en's Clubs and other organizations in- 
tensify work in interest of Nation's chil- 
dren — Women work to make Federal 
Child Labor Law effective — New de- 
partment of Children's Bureau under 
Miss Abbott. 

VII Health and Recreation 84 

Moral and physical welfare of enlisted 
men the government's first consider- 
ation — Woman's Committee, Y.W.C. A., 
and other organizations assist Com- 
mission on training camp activities — 
How women have helped in many States. 

VIII Patriotic Education 95 

Nation-wide plans are set on foot to in- 
duce 3,000,000 immigrants to attend 
night schools — "America First" cam- 
paign launched — Woman's organiza- 
tions asked to help — Woman's Commit- 
tee appoints Mrs. Catt Chairman of 
Education — Foreign women flock to 
night schools in Chicago, bringing their 
babies — Volunteer nurses called for. 

IX The Liberty Loan 107 

More than 1,000,000 women subscribe in 
first sale of bonds — One-third of all 
Liberty Bond buyers are women — Re- 
markable campaign of organization and 
education conducted by Woman's Lib- 
erty Loan Committee, Mrs. McAdoo, 
Chairman. 

X Women in Industry 118 

More than 2,000,000 of America's 
women who work in factories deeply 
affected by war — Women's Labor Or- 
ganizations work to maintain standards 
— National League for Woman's Serv- 
X 



CONTENTS 

CHAPTEK PAGE 

ice renders valuable aid — Value of this 
work recognized by the Secretary of 
Labor — United States establishes em- 
ployment agencies throughout the coun- 
try — The Gompers Committee. 

XI The Red Cross 137 

Woman's Bureau of the Red Cross — Its 
purposes and plans — A general survey 
— Supply service and Bureau of Stand- 
ards — Knitting, hospital garments, sur- 
gical dressings, comfort kits, etc. — 
Home service — Volunteer aids — Work 
organized and canteens established in 
France — Junior Red Cross — School 
fund — Red Cross school activities — 
How to organize. 

XII The Red CRass Nurse 148 

Some details of Red Cross work in 
which women are especially interested — 
Fields of opportunity suggested by 
Woman's Bureau — Nursing service — 
Emergency detachments — Town and 
country nursing — Instructions for knit- 
ting, comfort kits, hospital garments, 
etc. — Home Service Institutes in 
twenty-five cities. 

XIII Junior Red Cross 170 

The school fund — Red Cross school ac- 
tivities — Steps in organization — Infant 
Welfare Unit for France financed by 
American women — Children's Refuge — 
Children's Bureau undertakes great 
work in France. 

XIV National League for Woman's Service 181 

America's largest and most remarkable 
war emergency organization — Its va- 
rious departments and some details of 
its plans — With branches in every state 
this organization has far-reaching in- 
fluence and is officially recognized, 
xi 



CONTENTS 

CHAPTER 

XV Permanent Organization 



PAGE 

189 



How the great permanent organizations 
of women turned to war work — General 
Federation of Women's Clubs, Daugh- 
ters of American Revolution, Colonial 
Dames, United Daughters of Confed- 
eracy, Council of Jewish Women, Y. W. 
C. A., Navy League, Congress of Moth- 
ers, etc. 



PART II 

STATE ORGANIZATIONS 

XVI Alabama, Arkansas, and Arizona . . 215 
Alabama women quickly perfect organ- 
ization in every county — Work financed 
by voluntary contributions — First ac- 
tivity was distribution of President's 
war message to men who enlisted — 
Governor proclaims Woman's Registra- 
tion Day — Women work in Arkansas 
and Arizona — Alaska furnishes inspira- 
tion to her sister states. 

XVII California, Colorado, and Connecticut 223 

Heads of all women's organizations 
form California's Central Committee — 
Cooperate with national and state de- 
fense work — Women share in $100,000 
defense fund — Colorado's organization 
unique — Women have equal represen- 
tation on State Council — Connecticut 
furnishes example of perfect coordina- 
tion and cooperation — State Chairman 
gives story of work — A defense. 

XVIII Delaware, Florida, and the National 

Capital 237 

War work in Delaware centers in Wil- 
mington — In first month of war over 
1,000 community gardens are planted — 
Outline of work done by women of 
national capital — Ladies of the Senate 
xii 



CONTENTS 

CHAPTER PAGE 

organize to sew for Red Cross — Presi- 
dent's wife a contributor — Women set 
fine example to the Nation — Florida 
women follow suggestions from Na- 
tional Woman's Committee — Presidents 
of State organizations form Woman's 
Committee . 

XIX Georgia, Idaho, and Illinois .... 247 
Remarkable work of Georgia women — 
Agricultural rallies prove effective — 
First Red Cross diet kitchen in South — 
Negro women work for negro soldiers — 
Idaho women get quick results in 
every undertaking — Society women 
pack prunes — Illinois fortunate in hav- 
ing many prominent women identified 
with defense work — Great work of 
women in Chicago. 

XX Indiana, Iowa, Kansas and Kentucky 263 

Registration first consideration of In- 
diana women — Market exchange to 
be operated permanently — Interesting 
things happen in Iowa — Kansas organ- 
ized along practical lines — Women of 
"Blue Grass States" among first to re- 
port perfect and active organization — 
Educational work a feature. 

XXI Louisiana, Michigan and Other States 275 

Louisiana Governor issues proclamation 
making registration of women compul- 
sory — Defense work in Maine — Exist- 
ing organizations in Maryland form 
woman's committee — Results amazing 
— Admirable plan of organization 
adopted in Massachusetts — What Bos- 
ton has done — Michigan women help 
save cherry crop — Wayside markets es« 
tabljshed — Lavish use of posters proved 
effective — ^Meals for soldiers, 
xiii 



CONTENTS 

CHAPTER PAGE 

XXII Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Ne- 
braska AND Nevada 294 

Minnesota women cooperate with Public 
Safety Commission — Perfect coordina- 
tion in Mississippi — Thirty women's or- 
ganizations unite in war work — "One 
can for the Government" from every 
woman — Missouri adopts unique method 
of food conservation campaign — Wom- 
an's patriotic special train — What the 
women of Montana are doing — Ne- 
braska early in the field with complete 
organization — Registration accom- 
plished in one day — "Drying and Can- 
ning Week" in Omaha — Nevada women 
have various activities. 

XXIII New Hampshire, Nevp- Jersey and New 

Mexico 313 

New Hampshire follows interesting plan 
of organization — State Chairman gives 
her residence as headquarters — New 
Jersey women initiate many novel forms 
of patriotic service — Canning centers in 
every community — Markets opened all 
over the state — New Mexico furnishes a 
thrill to Mr. Hoover — Drying food not 
a "lost art" in that state. 

XXIV New York and North Carolina . . . 325 

New York State organizes early and 
plan of organization is interesting — 
— Constructive work for maintaining 
home with present standards chief con- 
cern of State Committee — Mayor's 
Committee of New York and its great 
work — Suffrage organization makes 
valuable contribution to organization 
work — North Carolina's splendid rec- 
ord. 

XXV North Dakota and Ohio 359 

W. C. T. U. and Suffrage Association 
initiate war work in North Dakota — 
xiv 



CHAPTER 



CONTENTS 

Eighty towns completely organized — 
Stirring letter from State Chairman — 
Work of women in cities of Ohio — How 
state defense work is organized — What 
women have done in Cincinnati, Cleve- 
land and Toledo. 



PAOB 



XXVI 



XXVII 



Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Oregon and 

Rhode Island 369 

Oklahoma women wide awake — Work to 
eliminate commercial waste — Efforts in 
interest of families of enlisted men — 
Pennsylvania's wonderful record in war 
work — Chester County model for the 
nation — Women's organizations in Ore- 
gon constitute Woman's Committees 
— Clubwomen active — Rhode Island 
women distinguish themselves by taking 
military census. 



South Carolina and Other States . 
What the South Carolina women have 
done — State thoroughly organized — 
Work in South Dakota difficult — 
Women persist and work valiantly with- 
out funds — Tennessee falls in line with 
all varieties of war work — Utah women 
specialize on kitchen gardens — Texas 
women thoroughly organized under Na- 
tional League for Woman's Service — 
War work in Vermont. 



384 



XXVIII Virginia, Wisconsin, Washington, Etc. 396 
Personnel of Virginia Committee — Na- 
tional League for Woman's Service and 
Woman's Committee work effectively in 
Washington — D. A. R. and Suffrage 
Association in Wisconsin cooperate in 
Americanization — Vocational emergency 
education — Wyoming Woman's Com- 
mittee encourages garden planting — 
Acreage increased 150 per cent. — Every 

XV 



CONTENTS 

CHAPTER PAGE 

county organized — Many things done in 
West Virginia — Every woman's organ- 
ization cooperating. 



PART III 

WAR RELIEF ORGANIZATIONS 

XXIX The Federal Council 411 

The Federal Council and some of its co- 
operating committees — National Allied 
Relief — Great bazaars of New York, 
Boston and Chicago — "Alley Festa" 
of 1917 — International Reconstruction 
League — American Fund for Fatherless 
Children and Munition Workers — 
Women's Hospitals — National Surgical 
Dressings Committee — American Wom- 
en's War Relief — Stage Women's War 
Relief — American Ambulance, Millinery 
Branch — Statement about "Godmother- 
ing." 

XXX Vacation Association, Needlework 

Guild and Other Agencies . . . 422 

Organization and growth of Vacation 
Association War Relief — Flotilla Com- 
mittee and its wonderful work — Militia 
of Mercy — Needlework Guild of Amer- 
ica — Committee for Men Blinded in 
Battle — Emergency Aid of Pennsyl- 
vania — Committee of Mercy and its con- 
tribution of over $2,000,000— Hudson 
River War Relief — League of the Al- 
lies — League of Catholic Women — 
Mercy Committee of New Jersey. 

XXXI Special Aid Society, and Work of Jew- 
ish Women 433 

National Special Aid Society — Trench 
Comforts Packet Committee — Artists' 
xvi 



CHAPTER 



CONTENTS 

Committee of One Hundred — White 
Cross Guard movement — Southern 
Women's Patriotic Committee — Phy- 
sicians, Surgeons and Dentists' Fund — 
Council of Jewish Women and some of 
its cooperating organizations — Joint 
Distribution Committee of Fund for 
Jewish War Sufferers — Zionist organ- 
izations — Authors' League fund. 



PAGE 



XXXII Relief for Belgium 446 

American relief work for Belgium — 
American Committee for War Charities 
of Queen of Belgium — Sou du Mutile — 
Committee for Relief of Belgian Pris- 
oners in Germany — Ouvre Beige du 
Lait pour les Petits — La Sante de VEn- 
fance — Mayfair War Relief — Millicent 
Sutherland Ambulance — King Albert's 
Civilian Hospital Fund. 



XXXIII Relief Work in France 453 

American women who have given gen- 
erously of their time and means — What 
the American Canteen means to the sol- 
diers — American Relief Clearing House 
— War Relief Clearing House for 
France and her Allies — American Am- 
bulance Hospital in Paris — Committee 
for Training Maimed Soldiers — Edith 
Wharton's war charities — Le Paquet du 
Soldat. 



XXXIV Relief for France 466 

American Fund for French Wounded — 
Funds for Heroes of France and her 
Allies — French Heroes Fund — Blind 
Relief Fund — Ecole des Beaux Arts — 
Union des Arts — Comite Franco- 
Americain — American Girls Aid — ^^Fath- 
xvii 



CHAPTEB 



CONTENTS 

eriess Children of France — American 
Distributing Service — War Babies' 
Cradle— Children's Fund for Baddies' 
Kits — Relief for Liberated Villages of 
France. 



PAGE 



XXXV Relief FOR France 480 

American Ice Flotilla Committee raised 
more than $100,000 in 1917 — American 
Field Service in France — Appui aux 
Artistes — Mrs. Stuyvesant raises more 
than $20,000 through "One Dollar Fund" 
— Duryea Relief — Franco -American 
Committee — American Branch French 
Actors' Fund — French Bureau — French 
Tuberculosis War Victims' Fund — 
Hospital Under Three Flags — Lafayette 
Fund — Le Bien-Etre du Bless e — Se- 
cours de Giierre — Secours National. 



XXXVI Relief for Great Britain 490 

Relief work for Great Britain — British- 
American Relief Fund — Receipts 
amount to over $164,000 — British War 
Relief Association — Chelsea War Re- 
fugees' Fund — American Branch Lord 
Beresford's Fund — Lady Helmsley's 
Fund — London Motor Volunteer Coi-ps 
—American Auxiliary Woman's Health 
Association of Ireland — Shamrock 
Fund — Scottish Highlanders Relief As- 
sociation — Queen of Roumania Fund — 
New England Italian War Relief. 



XXXVII Relief for Poland and Russia . . . 

Poland's pathetic appeal — Madame He- 
lena Paderewski joins her husband in 
relief for native land — ^Polish Central 
Relief — ^Americans seek to relieve dis- 
tress in Russia — Lithuanian War Re- 
lief Committee — Armenian and Syrian 
Relief — Serbian Relief Committee, 
xviii 



497 



CONTENTS 

PART IV 

A DIRECTORY OF LEADING WOMEN'S ORGAN- 
IZATIONS DOING DEFENSE WORK 

PAGK 

General Officers 515 

Division of Women's War Work of the 
committee on public information — 
Woman's Committee of the council of 
national defense — American Red Cross 
— Bureau of nursing — Division direc- 
tors of women's work — General federa- 
tion of women's clubs — Daughters of 
the American Revolution — Women's 
Christian Temperance Union — Young 
Women's Christian Association: War 
Work Council — National Congress of 
Mothers and Parent-Teachers' Associa- 
tion — Council of Jewish Women — 
United States Emplojonent Service. 

State Directory 524 



PART I 
THE WOMAN'S COMMITTEE 



CHAPTER I 
INTRODUCTORY 

American women of the year 1917 are no braver, 
no more patriotic, no more self-sacrificing than women 
have been in all wars of all times. ''Earth's women 
of every generation have faced suffering and death 
with an equanimity that no soldier on a battlefield 
has ever surpassed and few equaled," says Olive 
Schreiner, "and where war has been to preserve life, 
or land, or freedom, rather than for aggrandizement 
and power, unparasitized and laboring women have 
in all ages known how to bear an active part, and die. ' ' 

The spirit of Florence Nightingale and Clara Bar- 
ton lives today in the Red Cross — kindled into a 
flame of love that warms the heart of the whole world. 
It is said that the calm and poise with which Martha 
Washington met the great crisis in her life was in a 
measure due to her constant habit of knitting; and 
her tender ministrations to the sick and to the suf- 
fering are part of the history of those memorable 
days at Valley Forge. Gay and frivolous Dolly Madi- 
son gave "twenty dollars and a good cow" to the 
first orphanage in Washington established for the 
children of the soldiers and the sailors, and was the 
inspiration and the staunch supporter of that institu- 
tion. 

The Congressional Record of the United States 



AMERICAN WOMEN AND THE WORLD WAR 

contains the names of three women who distinguished 
themselves for bravery in battle and who were pen- 
sioned for military service. These were ''Molly 
Pitcher," Margaret Corbin and Deborah ^'^anette. 
The brave deeds of these women stand out against 
the background of history, and yet no one doubts but 
that the same dauntless courage, the same seflessness, 
that inspired their acts lives in the souls of thousands 
of American women of today, waiting only to be ex- 
pressed in action by the call of love or duty. It is 
recorded that upon report of Molly Pitcher's act by 
General Washington the Continental Congress voted 
her "a, sergeant's commission and half pay for life.'* 
And on February 21, 1822, an act passed in the State 
Senate of Pennsylvania gave to Molly Pitcher "The 
sum of forty dollars immediately and the same sum 
half yearly for life." In the British attack upon 
Fort Washington, John Corbin was shot and killed 
while serving his gun. His wife, Margaret, saw him 
fall and, running to the officer in command, begged 
to be allowed to serve the gun. Her request was 
granted and she continued to serve the gun until seri- 
ously wounded. Her heroism was reported to the 
authorities at Philadelphia and the State promptly 
provided for her. Later the Executive Council re- 
ferred the case to the Continental Congress and on 
June 29, 1779, there was this entry, *'That Margaret 
Corbin, wounded and disabled, while she heroically 
filled the post of her husband who was killed by her 
side while serving a piece of artillery, do receive dur- 
ing her natural life, or continuance of such disability, 
one-half the pay drawn by a soldier in the service of 
these States, and that she now receive out of the pub- 

4 



THE WOMAN'S COMMITTEE 

lie stores one suit of clothes, or the value in money." 
Deborah (^nette, alias Robert Shurtleff, was offi- 
cially recognized for enlisted service covering a term 
of years. 

"When our hearts beat high and our pulses thrill 
over Russia's grand old woman, Catherine Breshkovs- 
kaya, known as the * ' Grandmother of the Revolution, ' ' 
and over the stories that come to us of the '' Battal- 
ion of Death," let us not forget our own Molly 
Pitcher and Margaret Corbin and Deborah Janette; 
and let us not forget instances of woman's heroism 
during the Civil War — stories that many of us have 
heard first hand. If the so-called *' histories" of the 
women of these days read, for the most part, like 
funeral notices, the charge should be laid at the door 
of the historians and not to their subjects. 

And still, the achievement of American women in 
the world war of 1917 will stand out in no shadowy 
and uncertain outline against the background of the 
history that the future generations will read; for 
woman's share in the nation's task in this gigantic 
struggle for the freedom of the races is to mark a new 
era, both in the conduct of war and in the history of 
the woman movement. 

There seem to be two outstanding reasons why 
American women, more than the women of any other 
country, in the present war, are to furnish an ex- 
ample to the world of woman's efficiency and woman's 
power. First, the fact that so large a proportion of 
American women are organized ; second, the fact that 
the value of woman's work in the prosecution of war 
was immediately recognized by the United States Gov- 
ernment, and by individual national leaders. This 

5 



AMERICAN WOMEN AND THE WORLD WAR 

recognition on the part of the Government was ex- 
pressed in the prompt creation of the Woman's Com- 
mittee of the Council of National Defense, which, 
theoretically at least, bears the same relation to the 
main body as do the other sub-committees. The 
writer fully agrees with many of our national women 
leaders who would be glad to see women more defi- 
nitely represented in war work; who would like to 
see the Woman's Committee empowered to initiate 
instead of merely to advise; who believe that the 
genius of the women composing the committee is prac- 
tically paralyzed so long as the committee is expected 
to act only in an advisory capacity ; who would like to 
see a woman at the head of the conservation depart- 
ment of the National Food Administration, since 
women are the natural conservators of the human race ; 
who agree with Helen Ring Robinson, of Colorado, that 
''we can not win this war by shutting up women's 
energies in a garbage can," A great leader of 
Napoleon's day bewailed the fact that out of millions 
of people there could not be found two men. America 
was more fortunate. Our national leaders had no 
difficulty in finding ten women — real ones, capable of 
generaling any army of women. 

When the Government created its war body, at 
least, it followed the precedent set by the Creator of 
the universe, in that it created its man body first and 
made woman a side issue, extracting or subtracting 
nothing whatever from the man body in the process — 
not even a rib or a piece of governmental backbone. 
That is why the Woman's Committee — for all the in- 
telligence and experience and executive ability that 
comprise it — cannot stand alone; that is why it is so 

6 



THE WOMAN'S COMMITTEE 

frequently reminded by its superior body that it is 
not expected to initiate but should only advise. It 
was a consummation devoutly to be wished that the 
Government, having created the woman body of its 
war machine, should have breathed into it the breath 
of life. 

But out of the doubts and questionings, the won- 
dering and the speculation, there looms this bright 
and shining fact, the Committee was created — the 
impulse in the right direction was there, and its re- 
sultant act will be as a white guide-post to other gov- 
ernments of future days as they stand on the gray 
uncertain roads of destiny — a guide that points a 
straight, ascending way to a larger, surer victory 
than any other generation has achieved. 

It would seem that this impulse was well grounded, 
for no sooner had this country been forced into the 
conflict, than national leaders, as individuals, began 
to pay high tributes to the value of woman's work in 
the prosecution of war, and to ask for the coopera- 
tion and assistance of the women in formulating the 
war emergency program. 

President Wilson pays this tribute to the women of 
America: *'I think the whole country has appreci- 
ated the way in which the women have risen to this 
great occasion. They have not only done what they 
have been asked to do, and done it with ardor and 
efficiency, but they have shown a power to organize for 
doing things on their own initiative, which is quite a 
different thing and a very much more difficult thing. 
I think the whole country has admired the spirit and 
the capacity and devotion of the women of the United 
States. It goes without saying that the country de- 

7 



AMERICAN WOMEN AND THE WORLD WAR 

pends upon the women for a large part of the inspira- 
tion of its life. That is obvious. But it is now de- 
pending upon the women also for suggestions of serv- 
ice, which have been rendered in abundance and with 
the distinction of originality. ' ' 

The Secretary of War, speaking of the national 
plans for safeguarding the health and morals of the 
men in the training camps, said : 

''I think there is a significance in the fact that the 
department of the Government especially charged 
with the making of war should appeal to the women 
for the success of such an undertaking. One does 
not ordinarily associate the making of war with the 
activities of women. Ordinarily, I think one's men- 
tal picture of women in a country at war portrays 
them as the principal sufferers. And so I think 
there is a certain significance, perhaps an indication 
of the extent to which our civilization has gone, when 
a Secretary of War says to the women that the suc- 
cess of the United States in the making of this war 
is just as much in the hands of the women of America 
as it is in the hands of the soldiers of our army. ' ' 

On August 2, 1917, the Secretary of the Nav^^ said : 
**In my opinion the importance of the part which 
our American women must play in the successful 
prosecution of the war cannot be overestimated. 

''Not only those heroic women who, as Red Cross 
nurses, will accompany our soldiers to France, and 
those who at home are devoting their time, talents and 
energies to work specifically connected with the war; 
but all of our women can and must do their part if 
this war is to be brought to a successful conclusion. 
The part which the home-makers can do in their 

8 



THE WOMAN'S COMMITTEE 

homes by careful and intelligent planning, for the 
most economic and wise use of food supplies, is one of 
the most important services of the entire war. The 
question of food conservation is one which we must 
depend upon the women of America to solve. 

* 'American women have always been ready to an- 
swer the call of service and have cheerfully undergone 
the untold sacrifices and burdens which war places 
upon them so much more heavily than upon men. 
They are already making sacrifices and enduring 
hardships with a spirit which commands our intense 
admiration. ' ' 

The Secretary of the Interior in June, 1917, said : 
* ' This war cannot be won without the help of women. 
I do not mean their help as mechanics or laborers, as 
farmers or nurses. The help that they can give of 
supreme value is their moral support, their spiritual 
stimulus. Unless our women feel the greatness of 
the moral issues involved in this contest, and unless 
they have raised their boys to fight, if necessary, for 
the things for which we stand, the war can not be 
won. This war from its beginning has been a chal- 
lenge to our chivalry, as well as to our interests, and 
I think too little stress has been laid upon the fact 
that, in a time of such intense national strain, reli- 
ance must be placed upon the insight and moral great- 
ness of our women. They have not raised their boys 
to be soldiers, but they have raised them to be 
chivalrous gentlemen who can not see the weak at- 
tacked and force acknowledged as the guiding prin- 
ciple of civilization without a burning resentment 
and willingness to champion the cause of the weak 
and the maintenance of the principle of justice." 

9 



AMERICAN WOMEN AND THE WORLD WAR 

The Honorable George E. Chamberlain, of Oregon, 
Chairman of the Senate Committee on Military Af- 
fairs, said: ^'The women of America up to this 
day have been more active, have rendered a greater 
service, and have more carefully fitted themselves for 
hardship and future effort than ever before in the 
history of our country. And I say this without dis- 
paraging the splendid work that has been done by 
our mothers, wives and sisters in every prior war. 

**One reason for the supreme effort that is being 
made is the broader recognition that is given to 
woman, and her status as a citizen. She feels more 
at liberty to act now in the sterner affairs of life than 
ever before, and by the same token she is placed in a 
position where she can do more, and well she is per- 
forming the allotted task. In my opinion she will in 
this war, as she has done in the past wars, make the 
slacker impossible and drive the coward to his duty 
at the front. 

''But her great sphere is in the field of tender ef- 
fort in the relief of the distressed and the afflicted. 
In this field no one can take her place, and I look to 
see the women of America make a record for them- 
selves in the pending war that will stand far and 
above the work of any organized effort in the world. ' ' 

Mr. Lemuel D. Padgett, of Tennessee, Chairman of 
the House Committee on Naval Affairs, said on Au- 
gust 1, 1917: ''Inspired by purpose, zeal, and en- 
thusiasm which challenge the admiration of all pa- 
triots, the women of America in unison are working 
not alone for alleviating sufferings and burdens of 
our soldiers, sailors and marines, but in an intelligent 
way are striving to place about the Army and the 

10 



THE WOMAFS COMMITTEE 

Navy environments which will conduce to improved 
military morale and efficiency of our fighting forces 
and place the Army and Navy upon a higher standard. 
Moreover, their zeal, enthusiasm and unity of pur- 
pose in their ideals and work are an inspiration to 
the whole nation/' 

In a letter to the writer dated August 7, 1917, 
Surgeon-General Rupert Blue, of the United States 
Public Health Service, said: ''Personally, I do not 
believe the value and importance of woman's work 
in the present struggle can be overestimated. Of 
course, it will be only a few of our women who will 
be so fortunate as to have the opportunity of render- 
ing service at the front, so that in the front ranks of 
the women workers we must place those nurses of the 
American Red Cross and of the Army medical service 
who will minister to the wounded at the base hospitals 
in France. 

*'But there will also be important work for those 
of the nursing profession who remain in this country. 
The public health nursing to be performed by private 
and Red Cross nurses under federal, state and local 
health authorities must be continued throughout the 
war in order that the sanitary balance may not be 
disturbed. Child welfare work, especially in the 
families of soldiers who are at the front, should not 
only be continued, but extended wherever possible. 

"Women physicians might also be employed for 
service at convalescent hospitals at home in the treat- 
ment of soldiers who have been returned on account 
of chronic conditions, in this way relieving medical 
men for service at the front. 

''There will also be many positions in civil life 

11 



AMERICAN WOMEN AND THE WORLD WAR 

which can be filled by women, thus releasing men for 
war service. The work that has been accomplished 
by the women of our allies in business and industrial 
lines stands as a wonderful demonstration of the abil- 
ity of woman to *do her bit' in this direction. 

*'And for the many without business or profes- 
sional training, or for the spare moments of those 
who have family duties or are self-supporting, there 
remains the great work of collecting and distributing 
useful articles for our soldiers and sailors. Through 
the many organizations being conducted for this pur- 
pose, there will be work for all.'' 

There can not be the slightest doubt that such senti- 
ments as these, coming from the men who are guiding 
the nation's affairs in the greatest crisis of its history, 
have had a most stimulating effect upon the women 
of the country. 

As it is given to comparatively few men to serve 
as officers in the front ranks of our armies on the 
battle fronts, so it is given to but few of our women 
to lead in the battles we in the home ranks must fight. 
But to the *' dove-colored women" in the quiet homes, 
far from the tragic sweep of the world's great events, 
will belong a share in the honor of the final victory 
just as surely as that honor will be shared by the pri- 
vate soldier in the ranks who offers his life for a cause 
that is just. 

It would be well for the women in the millions of 
average American homes, and it would be well for 
their country, if they could come into a full appre- 
ciation of how much their individual effort adds to 
the final sum of our national effort. It is because of 
these women and their patriotic interest that the 

12 



THE WOMAN'S COMMITTEE 

National Commercial Economy Board was able to an- 
nounce at the end of a few months that the campaign 
for the elimination of waste bread had resulted in a 
saving of enough bread each day to feed a million 
people. It was because of their patriotic interest 
that crops to the value of $350,000,000 were raised in 
back yard gardens in 1917. It was because of their 
patriotic interest that Mr. Davison, head of the 
American Red Cross, said that the value of garments 
made by American women for troops abroad in 1917 
was valued at over $36,000,000. And it will be be- 
cause of the patriotic interest of these average Ameri- 
can women, who may be tempted sometimes to believe 
that they lack the opportunity to serve, that the final 
victory will come, and that peace will reign in the 
whole world. It would indeed be well if the very 
humblest of American women could realize how im- 
portant a part they have to play in the great world 
tragedy of today. There comes to mind this picture 
of the charwoman sketched by the pen of Arnold 
Bennett : * * The wind played with the gray wisps of 
her hair and with her coarse brown apron, beneath 
which her skirt was pinned up. Human eyes seldom 
saw her without a coarse brown apron. Itself and a 
pail were the insignia of her vocation. She was ac- 
complished and conscientious. She could be trusted. 
She was thoroughly accustomed to the supreme spec- 
tacles of birth and death and could assist thereat 
with dignity and skill. She could turn away the 
wrath of rent collectors, rate collectors, school in- 
spectors, and magistrates. She was an adept in en- 
ticing an inebriated husband to leave a public house. 
She could feed four children and do it on seven pence 

13 



AMERICAN WOMEN AND THE WORLD WAR 

and rise calmly to her feet after having been knocked 
down by one stroke of a fist. She could go without 
food, sleep, or love, and yet thrive. She could give 
when she had nothing and keep herself sweet in the 
midst of every contagion. She had never had a holi- 
day and almost never failed in her duty.'' There 
are many women like that in America, and these also 
constitute a valuable national asset. 

In every state in the Union women of the highest 
type, experienced in dealing with people and skilled 
in leadership, have given of themselves freely as vol- 
unteer workers in America's great army of women. 
That is why the war work in the different states is 
so varied and so interesting; it reflects the ideals of 
the best and the bravest of our women, and empha- 
sizes what is most important in their respective 
fields. 

It is to be regretted that reports are incomplete 
from many of the states, but it should be borne in 
mind that, even while the material for this book is 
being collected, little children crowd together at a 
roadside at the end of a dreary day in France and 
watch a long khaki-colored line crawl toward them. 
A woman pushes a little girl forward, and in the gray 
mist she hangs a wreath of bright colored flowers on 
a mud-bespattered American gun ! For today Ameri- 
can boys are having their first baptism of German 
fire in front line trenches on the battle front ! 

Soon after Mr. Hoover came to America after his 
great work as the head of the Commission for Relief 
in Belgium he said: *' America is only beginning to 
allow the awful burden of suffering and destitution to 
rest upon her conscience." Between this day and 

14 



THE WOMAN'S COMMITTEE 

the day upon which those words were spoken less 
than a year has elapsed, and yet Mr. Hoover would 
doubtless be the last person to say them now. 

The story of the great relief work undertaken and 
accomplished by the American people is the greatest 
story of the kind that has ever been written into any 
history of any time. At one time in the fall of 1917 
there were in progress in America fourteen national 
campaigns in the interest of raising money for war 
relief work in foreign lands and among our own 
troops for the year 1918. The funds sought in these 
various campaigns for purposes of war aggregated 
more than $300,000,000, and not one failure has yet 
been recorded. The latest available figures show that 
total funds raised for foreign relief in America up to 
1918 amounted to more than $20,000,000, and that sup- 
plies have been shipped valued at more than $10,000,- 
000, making a total of $30,000,000 ! That looks as if 
America is awake. Over five thousand different or- 
ganizations and branch organizations are doing war 
work, and more than two million persons are ac- 
tively enlisted as members of these organizations. 
These figures, impressive as they are, do not begin to 
represent the magnitude of the activities carried on 
by the allied war relief organizations in America. 
"While they are not given as final it is safe to say that 
they underestimate rather than overestimate the funds 
raised and the value of supplies sent abroad. In all 
of this work women have had an important share. 
Again I quote from Olive Schreiner^s classic, 
** Woman and War": **. . . On this one point, and 
on this point almost alone, the knowledge of woman, 
simply as woman, is superior to that of man; she 

15 



AMERICAN WOMEN AND THE WORLD WAR 

knows the history of human flesh ; she knows its cost ; 
he does not. . . . We have in all ages produced, at 
an enormous cost, the primal munition of war, with- 
out which no other would exist. There is no battle- 
field on earth, nor ever has been, howsoever covered 
with slain, which has not cost the women of the race 
more in actual bloodshed and anguish to supply, than 
it has cost the men who lie there. We pay the first 
cost on all human life.'' 

Although it is far too early to write even the first 
chapter of Americans part in the present conflict, the 
brief outline of what American women are trying to 
do, as given in this book, should stimulate the pride 
and stir the ambition of every loyal American, to the 
end that the superstructure of this remarkable work 
should be as great and as enduring as its foundation 
justifies. 



CHAPTER II 

WOMAN'S COMMITTEE CREATED 

The creation of the Woman's Committee — Its purpose, as 
set forth by the Secretary of War — Its general plan of 
organization and operation — Some of its early activities 

America was the first country in the world to give 
formal official recognition to women in the construc- 
tion of its war machine, and to recognize immediately, 
upon a declaration of war, its woman power as one of 
its most valuable assets. 

On April 21, 1917, fifteen days after Congress 
formally declared that a state of war existed between 
this country and Germany, the Council of National 
Defense gave out this statement: *' Realizing the 
inestimable value of woman's contribution to national 
effort under modern war conditions, the Council of 
National Defense has appointed a committee of 
women of national prominence to consider and advise 
how the assistance of the women of America may be 
made available in the prosecution of the war. These 
women are appointed as individuals regardless of any 
organizations with which they may be associated. 
The body will be known as the Committee on Women 's 
Defense Work. Its membership is as follows: Dr. 
Anna Howard Shaw, Chairman; Mrs. Philip N. 
Moore, of St. Louis, President of the National Coun- 
cil of Women; Mrs. Josiah E. Cowles, of California, 

17 



AMERICAN WOMEN AND THE WORLD WAR 

President of the General Federation of Women's 
Clubs ; Miss Maude Wetmore, of Rhode Island, Chair- 
man of the National League for Woman's Service; 
Mrs. Carrie Chapman Catt, of New York, President 
of the National American Woman Suffrage Organiza- 
tion ; Mrs. Antoinette Funk, of Illinois ; Mrs. Stanley 
McCormick, of Boston; Mrs. Joseph R. Lamar, of 
Atlanta, Georgia, President of the National Society of 
Colonial Dames; Miss Ida M. Tarbell, of New York, 
Publicist and Writer/' At a later meeting the name 
of Miss Agnes Nestor, of Chicago, President of the 
International Glove Workers' Union, was added. 
And early in October, 1917, the Council of Defense 
notified the Woman's Committee of the appointment 
of Miss Hannah Jane Patterson, as the eleventh mem- 
ber of the Committee. Miss Patterson immediately 
assumed the duties of resident director. The women 
composing this committee are, without exception, 
women of distinction in their respective lines of pub- 
lic work, and this wholly unsought and unexpected 
call to volunteer national service, involving as it did 
sacrifice and added responsibilities, found them in the 
midst of the performance of their individual duties. 
Dr. Shaw was congratulated, at the close of a lecture 
she had given, on the new honor that had come to her, 
and she had to ask what that honor was, as she had 
not received the telegram announcing her appoint- 
ment. There was no *' slacker" among them. Every 
one answered *' Present." 

The governmental authority of the Woman's Com- 
mittee is unquestioned. The Council of National De- 
fense is a body authorized by Act of Congress in 
August, 1916, consisting of the Secretary of War, 

18 



THE WOMAN'S COMMITTEE 

the Secretary of the Navy, the Secretary of the In- 
terior, the Secretary of Agriculture, the Secretary of 
Commerce, and the Secretary of Labor. This Coun- 
cil was directed to nominate to the President, and the 
President to appoint an Advisory Commission of not 
more than seven persons, believed to be especially 
qualified to assist in its work. The purpose of the 
Council of National Defense is the coordination of 
industries and resources for the national security and 
welfare and the creation of a new and direct channel 
of intercourse and cooperation between men and 
women and all departments of the Government. The 
Council has power to organize subordinate bodies and 
committees. The Woman's Committee of the Coun- 
cil of National Defense is such a creation. The pur- 
pose of the Committee is to coordinate the activities 
and the resources of the organized and unorganized 
women of the country, that their power may be im- 
mediately utilized in time of need, and to supply a 
new and direct channel of communication and co- 
operation between women and governmental depart- 
ments. 

All government departments are open to the 
Woman's Committee. Experts of these departments 
are advisors of the Committee, and through the Com- 
mittee go out to women, direct, the prompt and au- 
thoritative requests and information which the Gov- 
ernment wishes to pass on to them. The members 
of the Committee serve without compensation. The 
Council of National Defense provides headquarters, 
an executive secretary, clerical help and franking 
privilege. The headquarters provided by the Gov- 
ernment are at 1814 N Street, N. W., Washington, 

19 



AMERICAN WOMEN AND THE WORLD WAR 

D. C. This was formerly the Playhouse Club and 
Theater and is owned by Mrs. Henrietta M. Holliday, 
who had previously offered it to the Government, rent 
free, to be used during the war in helping to relieve 
the congestion which national defense work had 
caused. 

Shortly after the Woman's Committee was created 
the Secretary of War, who is chairman of the Council 
of National Defense, wrote to Dr. Shaw as follows : 

The creation of the Advisory Committee on Women's De- 
fense Work was prompted by an appreciation on the part 
of the Council of the very valuable service that the women 
of the country can and are anxious to render in the na- 
tional defense, and the desire to establish some common 
medium through which the Council might be brought into 
closest touch with them and into the fullest utilization of 
their services. 

Prior to the formation of the Women's Advisory Com- 
mittee, a great variety of work had already been undertaken 
by various organizations of women throughout the country 
independently of each other; much of which work was, in 
part at least, in duplication of efforts undertaken by other 
organizations, and the Council determined upon the forma- 
tion of the Women's Advisory Committee in order that this 
constructive effort might be coordinated and directed, du- 
plication being avoided and valueless work discouraged 
through its activities. Primarily, of course, the Committee 
on Women's Defense Work is an Advisory Committee to 
the Council, as are all other committees created under the 
Council. 

The Council of National Defense is charged with the re- 
sponsibility of taking whatever action is deemed wise upon 
consideration of the best advice obtainable from all sources, 
and the power to take affirmative action beyond the mere 

20 



THE WOMAN'S COMMITTEE 

advisory coordinations which can be brought about through 
persuasive and explanatory means, rests in the several offi- 
cers of the Government whose duties are made definite 
by law and are duties which cannot be delegated. The 
Women's Advisory Committee, therefore, should consider 
plans and projects of all kinds which, in their judgment, 
would be effective in the coordination of the activities of 
women harmoniously with the needs and aims of the Gov- 
ernment. Such plans and undertakings as meet with the 
approval of the Women's Advisory Committee should 
thereupon be reported with that approval to the Council. 
When the Council approves such a project, it will select 
an agency for its execution; that is to say, if the project 
is one which can be executed best through one of the estab- 
lished Governmental agencies, the Council will indicate 
that agency, place it in cooperative relations with you and 
direct it to carry out the plan. If, on the other hand, the 
project is one which can best be carried forward by some 
particular voluntary or unofficial agency, or is such a 
project as in the opinion of the Council could most effec- 
tively be pursued by the independent action of the Women's 
Advisory Committee, that course will be indicated. 

I realize that this letter is necessarily somewhat indefi- 
nite, since it must deal in general phrases with varying, 
complicated and different situations. In general, however, 
I think it states the relationship which the law establishes 
between the Committee and the Council, and in the work- 
ing out of this intent, I feel sure there will be found great 
opportunity for initiative on the part of the Committee, 
and work which will be of high value to the country. 

With scarcely more than this letter to guide them 
the Woman's Committee held its first meeting on 
May 2, 3, 4 and 5 in Washington and formulated a 
tentative plan of organization which v^as approved by 
the Council of National Defense and immediately sent 

21 



AMERICAN WOMEN AND THE WORLD WAR 

out to leading women in each of the forty-eight states. 
The plan of organization proposed to coordinate 
women's organizations and their working forces in 
order to enlist at once the greatest possible number in 
the service which the national crisis demanded. The 
Committee, in its initial announcement, urged that no 
defense work of any kind already done be lost; lead- 
ers in each state were asked to investigate the work 
under way and so to coordinate activities as to elim- 
inate duplication and overlapping. It was realized 
that each state and city would find problems peculiar 
to itself, and the good judgment of the women was 
relied on to find the solution to these problems. The 
Committee directed attention to the importance of 
conserving everything useful in the way of work al- 
ready started and in organization, and advised cen- 
tralization in the interest of higher efficiency. 

The Committee, at this first meeting, began its 
work of organization by the appointment of a tem- 
porary chairman in each of the forty-eight states and 
the District of Columbia. These temporary chairmen 
were instructed to call into conference at the earliest 
possible date the presidents or representatives of all 
women's organizations having state-wide scope, state 
branches of women's national organizations, and such 
individuals as they cared to select to represent the 
state at large and unorganized women. It was sug- 
gested that the invitation to participate in this con- 
ference be most democratic, and that recognition be 
given to clubs, religious denominations, fraternal so- 
cieties, philanthropies, and patriotic and protective 
associations of all sorts. 

The plan of organization provided that these 

22 



THE WOMAN'S COMMITTEE 

groups, with committees in counties, cities and towns, 
should constitute the state divisions, and become the 
official representatives of the Women's Committee of 
the Council of National Defense for the States. The 
state divisions were charged with the duty of seeing 
that all necessary forms of patriotic service or of 
defense programs, as outlined by the National 
Woman's Committee, were actively carried forward 
by organizations or individuals. The state divisions 
were planned to continue during the war and as long 
thereafter as the Council of National Defense may 
direct. The name given to the state division was 
** Woman's Committee of the Council of National De- 
fense, [name of state] Division." 

Thus, within a short time after it was created, 
the Woman's Committee had perfected a temporary 
working organization in every state, and women were 
mobilizing throughout the country under govern- 
mental direction. 

The wisdom and foresight of the women composing 
the Woman's Committee has been demonstrated in no 
more striking way than in the promulgation of this 
general plan of organization for women's war work. 
With no precedent to guide them, and with little time 
to work out and develop ideas, these women, at their 
first meeting, decided upon a program which has 
stood the test of time and in the working out of which 
no radical changes have been necessary — only expan- 
sion and development. 

As later revised and enlarged, this plan provided 
that each state division should elect a permanent 
chairman, a vice-chairman or vice-chairmen, an hon- 
orary vice-chairman (if desired), a secretary and a 

23 



AMERICAN WOMEN AND THE WORLD WAR 

treasurer, and such other officers as were found nec- 
essary. Each state was left free to adopt such by- 
laws or rules as it found desirable for the conduct of 
its business. The elected officers, together with addi- 
tional members, selected by the division, composed 
an executive committee, authorized to do business for 
the division under conditions which the division was 
expected to define. Each state division was advised 
to departmentalize its work with a competent chief 
or chairman for each department. It was suggested 
that the chairmen of departments be elected as mem- 
bers of the Executive Committee. They were to be 
selected for such chairmanships because of special 
fitness or training for such work, and were not nec- 
essarily heads of state organizations. The following 
departments were suggested as those which the Com- 
mittee believed would prove necessary to coordinate 
and make effective the work of the women of the 
state: Registration; Food Production and Home 
Economics; Food Administration; Women in Indus- 
try; Child Welfare; Maintenance of Existing Social 
Service Agencies ; Health and Recreation ; Education ; 
Liberty Loan; and Home and Foreign Relief. It 
was suggested that committees on finance and pub- 
licity be appointed. State Divisions were asked not 
to appoint chairmen for Food Administration, 
Women in Industry, or Liberty Loan, without con- 
sultation with the Woman *s Committee in Washing- 
ton, as these chairmen were to work directly with or 
under national committees dealing with the respective 
subjects. 

The general method of organization for a city or 
town was the same as that for the state. The officers 

24 



THE WOMAN'S COMMITTEE 

of the state division, or committee deputized by it, 
were expected to appoint in each city and town a 
competent woman to serve as temporary chairman. 
Her duty was to call into conference the presidents 
or representatives of all local organizations as soon 
as possible. City (or town) committees were formed 
composed of the president, or one representative, of 
each cooperating organization and certain women 
chosen from the city at large. This committee in all 
towns is known as *'[name of town] Unit of the 
Woman ^s Committee." The committee, in cities of 
over twenty-five thousand population, is known as 
the '' Woman ^s Committee of the Council of National 
Defense of [name of city]." The city or town com- 
mittees elect their own officers and executive and act 
under direction of the state division in all matters 
relating to the general defense program, as outlined 
in the departments ; each community is allowed, how- 
ever, to work out the details of the plan in accord- 
ance with local conditions. 

The city committees were urged to proceed as rap- 
idly as possible to establish auxiliary units in each 
ward. The same process of the appointment of a 
temporary chairman as was followed in the organiza- 
tion of state and city was suggested as the most 
promising plan. The ward organization conference, 
however, was usually a general meeting of the women 
of the ward, and the unit is composed of individual 
members, the idea being to reach all women of every 
class and make the defense program comprehensible 
to them. 

This plan, which rapidly began to operate in the 
various states, sought to link together in complete 

25 



AMERICAN WOMEN AND THE WORLD WAR 

working cooperation existing organizations of women. 
The Woman's Committees of the states and cities 
were designed to be a federation of all organizations 
of women. Women, however, not members of any 
organization were entitled to representation in the 
city and town committees. For the benefit of such 
women, freedom to form or join other units was al- 
lowed, and they are eligible to serve on all committees 
of state, city or town; the primary object being to 
coordinate and make effective the patriotic service of 
as many women as possible. 

The advantages of the plan were many. By this 
plan no organization lost its identity; existing ma- 
chinery was utilized and centralized ; duplication was 
to a large extent prevented and individual effort was 
made more far-reaching. It proposed to women, not 
that they join any new organization, but that they 
work in self-selected groups, along lines of their 
chosen activities ; no work was to be interrupted, but 
all work was to be coordinated and directed. Be- 
cause of the governmental authority under which the 
Woman's Committee operates, expert governmental 
advice was made available for local conditions and 
needs. The state divisions were to be financed by 
state funds, when available, by personal contribu- 
tions, and by benefits of various kinds. Economy of 
administration was a natural consequence of such co- 
ordination and direct distribution to all divisions 
of authoritative standards and methods. The head- 
quarters of the Woman's Committee serve as a clear- 
ing house of women's activities throughout the coun- 
try, and the Committee itself is the agent to transmit 
promptly any demands of the Government which 

26 



THE WOMAFS COMMITTEE 

might concern women's organizations. The plan was 
an elastic one and each community was left free to 
work out the details according to its own needs, being 
asked only to follow the general plan as outlined. 

In order to further this plan, and to carry out the 
duty with which it was charged, the Woman's Com- 
mittee, on June 9, 1917, issued a call to the heads 
of about two hundred national organizations of 
women to meet in Washington with the Woman's 
Committee on June 19. The object of the conference, 
as stated in the call, was "to engage the understand- 
ing and hearty cooperation of all these organizations 
in the work of the Woman's Committee, and to pre- 
sent the plan for the careful coordination of the work 
already in operation under the direction of the vari- 
ous organizations." 

In response to this call representatives of more 
than fifty national organizations of women met in 
Washington on June 19, 1917, and gave brief reports 
of the work already under way or completed. 

This meeting, remarkable at once for the surprising 
variety of interests it represented and for the una- 
nimity of sentiment it expressed, was made further 
significant because it was then that the first definite 
task was imposed upon American women by Mr. 
Herbert C. Hoover, the National Food Administrator. 
Mr. Hoover outlined his plan for enlisting the women 
of the country in the first nation-wide food conserva- 
tion campaign and asked the fullest cooperation of 
the Woman's Committee in the development of this 
plan. This cooperation was heartily pledged. 

A number of national organizations having given 
assurance of their willingness to cooperate in every 

27 



AMERICAN WOMEN AND THE WORLD WAR 

possible way with the Woman's Committee, the heads 
of these organizations were appointed to constitute 
an Honorary Advisory Committee of the Woman's 
Committee of the Council of National Defense, The 
personnel of this committee is as follows: Mrs. 
Ethelbert Nevin, American Fund for French^ 
Wounded ; Mrs. Lois K. Mathews, Association of Col- 
legiate Alumnae ; Mrs. Nathaniel Harris, Council of 
Jewish Women; Mrs. George Thacher Guernsey, Na- 
tional Society of the Daughters of the American 
Revolution; Mrs. J. Willis Martin, Garden Club of 
America; Mrs. Josiah E. Cowles, General Federation 
of Women's Clubs; Mrs. Emma C. Ocobock, General 
Grand Chapter 0. E. S., Eastern Star; Mrs. Theo- 
dora Booth, Girls' National Honor Guard; Mrs. Juli- 
ette Low, Girl Scouts; Mrs. W. H. Brown, Interna- 
tional Child Welfare; Miss Clara I. Cogan, Interna- 
tional Federation of Catholic Alumnae; Miss Stella 
Wood, International Kindergarten Union; Kate 
Davis, International People's Aid Association; Mrs. 
A. J. Ochsner, National Federation of Music Clubs; 
Miss Maude Wetmore, National League For Woman's 
Service; Mrs. Henry Ollesheimer, National League of 
Women Workers ; Mrs. Thomas P. Gore, National Li- 
brary for The Blind; Miss Anna A. Gordon, Na- 
tional American Woman's Christian Temperance 
Union; Bertha Van Hoosen, M.D., National Woman's 
Medical Association, Committee on War Relief; Mrs. 
Mary S. Lockwood, National Woman's Press Asso- 
ciation; Mrs. Eaymond Robins, National Women's 
Trade Union League ; Mrs. J. R. Lamar, National So- 
ciety of Colonial Dames of America; Mrs. Robert 
Hall Wiles, National Society United States Daughters 

28 



THE WOMAN'S COMMITTEE 

1812; Mrs. William Alexander, National Special Aid 
Society; Mrs. Eobert E. Speer, National Young 
Women's Christian Association; Mrs. Truman H. 
Newberry, Needlework Guild of America ; Miss Maude 
Wetmore, Woman's Department of National Civic 
Federation; Mrs. W. P. Thirkield, Woman's Home 
Missionary Society of the M. E. Church; Miss Belle 
H. Bennet, Woman's Missionary Council, M. E. 
Church, South; Mrs. Francis King, Woman's National 
Farm and Garden Association; Mrs. George Dewey, 
Woman's Section Navy League; Mrs. Israel Unter- 
berg, Young Woman's Hebrew Association; 
Woman's Board of Foreign Missions of the Presby- 
terian Church ; Frances E. Burns, Ladies of the Mac- 
cabees; Mrs. Isaac Pearson, League of American 
Penwomen; Mrs. Carrie C. Catt, National American 
Woman Suffrage Association ; Mrs. Arthur M. Dodge, 
National Association Opposed to Woman Suffrage; 
Mrs. Frederick Schoff, National Congress of Mothers 
and Parent Teachers Association; Mrs. Philip N. 
Moore, National Council of Women; Mrs. Myra K. 
Miller, National Federation of College Women. All 
other organizations were cordially invited to cooperate 
and thus maintain a vital affiliation with the Woman's 
Committee. 

Miss Ida M. Tarbell, writing in the Government 
Bulletin of the status of woman's war work at this 
time, gives a faithful analysis of the seeming unrest 
and uncertainty that was apparent among women 
everywhere. Miss Tarbell said: 

Quietly, almost unconsciously, there is going on in this 
country, an extraordinary gathering of its woman power. 
Multitudes of organizations and of individual women are 

29 



AMERICAN WOMEN AND THE WORLD WAR 

flowing together in a great union. This movement is a 
natural response to a need which was scarcely recognized 
until it was suggested. What is behind it? 

Under an impelling sense of the awful suffering which 
the great war was causing in Europe there has been for 
the last three years a constant increase in the relief efforts 
of women. They have knitted and they have raised money. 
They have formed societies and occasionally they have 
gone to the other side to offer their services. Probably 
the most important thing they have done, however, has been 
to keep the suffering in Europe before the country's eyes. 
They have refused to forget or let the world forget. 

As the shadow of the great tragedy stretched its dark 
lengths toward us, women everywhere multiplied their ef- 
forts. Before war was declared we had great organiza-i 
tions of women, and many unorganized groups, offering 
themselves for active service. It was inevitable that these 
efforts, springing mainly from a desire to do something, 
and quite undirected by any authority, should be more or 
less wasteful. It was inevitable that many things should 
be undertaken for which at the moment there was no need 
and that other things which were needed should be over- 
looked. 

These groups, eager for service and also, it must be said, 
more or less eager to be leaders, soon ran athwart one 
another. Confusion grew and they finally began to appeal 
to Washington for advice and recognition. Out of this 
pressure there came, naturally and possibly without much 
reahzation of what was being done, a government order 
that a central committee of representative women should be 
called to Washington to sit through the war and to do 
what it could to pull the woman power together. 

It is now two months since the women chosen, known 
officially as the Woman^s Committee of the Council of Na- 
tional Defense, first met. When they gathered there was 
more or less mystification about what was wanted of them. 

30 



THE WOMAN'S COMMITTEE 

They were told that they were to act as a clearing house 
for the war work of women. There was probably a doubt 
in the minds of most of the appointees as to whether the 
great groups of women which were already in action would 
be willing to recognize their authority; but orders are 
orders, and the Woman's Committee accepted theirs. 

They sent out right and left all over the land a call to 
all sorts of associations and societies, no matter what their 
creed, no matter what their purpose, no matter what their 
color, to merge their war work under one direction. What 
was proposed was an organization so all-inclusive and so 
flexible that not only the most powerful organized bodies 
would find themselves at home in it, but the remotest 
woman on the Kentucky mountains or the plains of the 
West. 

It sounds quixotic. The wonder of it is that no sooner 
had the call gone out than the forces of the women began 
to flow together. States which had been already organized 
for patriotic services promptly and cheerfully put them- 
selves under the direction of the Woman's Committee. 
Great societies whose work was well developed and which 
had had the ambition themselves to be leaders in patriotic 
work quickly promised allegiance. That is, what most ob- 
servers probably would have said was impossible, immedi- 
ately began to happen. 

We have been saying that we are not a nation, but this 
gathering together of the woman forces of the country 
seems to argue an amazing sense of nationality. Could it 
have happened if there had not already been a growing 
consciousness everywhere that this great enterprise for 
democracy which we are launching is a national affair, and 
if an individual or a society or a state is going to do its 
bit it must act with and under the government at Wash- 
ington? Nothing else but some such sense can explain 
the action of the women of the country in coming together 
as they are doing today under one centralized direction. 

31 



AMERICAN WOMEN AND THE WORLD WAR 

While working steadily but quietly to perfect the 
organizations in the various states and to coordinate 
the efforts of the existing societies, the Woman's 
Committee was being used as the channel through 
which many national messages were conveyed to the 
women of America. 

One of the first things undertaken by the commit- 
tee after its first meeting was that of assisting to 
make registration day on June 5th a day of patriotic 
service on the part of the women as well as of the 
men of the nation. On May 29, 1917, the Committee 
sent out to the chairmen of the various State Di- 
visions letters urging all organizations of women to 
utilize that day for patriotic service by stationing 
women at each registration booth. These women 
were asked to distribute copies of President Wilson's 
great war message to every man that registered. * ' It 
is a well known fact, ' ' to quote from this letter, * ' that 
thousands of men are fighting in the armies of 
Europe who have no well defined idea of the causes 
which led their countries into the war. Let us see 
to it that no man enters our army who has not a true 
understanding of the ideals which have led his coun- 
try to take up arms in defense of the things we hold 
dear as a nation." Women were urged to put all 
available machinery to work at once to secure the 
distribution of this message at every registration 
booth throughout the country. Through the gener- 
osity and cooperation of Mrs. Emmons Blaine, of 
Chicago, the Woman's Committee was able to furnish 
copies of the President's address to the various State 
Divisions. In this work the Committee had the ap- 
proval of the President and the Secretary of War. 

32 



THE WOMAN'S COMMITTEE 

At frequent intervals during the trying first months 
of war the Woman's Committee sent out helpful and 
inspirational letters and bulletins to the various state 
chairmen and to their sub-chairmen, as well as to the 
heads of women's organizations everywhere. It 
turned the full power of its organization toward for- 
warding the National Food Administrator's first 
drive for food conservation. It began very soon after 
its creation a systematic plan for registering both the 
volunteer and the wage-earning women of the coun- 
try for national service. In cooperation with exist- 
ing agencies already at work to solve the problem of 
women in industry it forwarded many helpful plans. 
At the request of the Secretary of the Treasury it put 
the machinery of its organization at the disposal of 
the Liberty Loan Committee. At the request of the 
Secretary of War it became active in enlisting the 
interest of women of the country in the effort to 
safeguard the morals of enlisted men in the camps. 
Bulletins were sent out giving valuable figures and 
information concerning the cost of deliveries, and at 
the request of the National Economy Board it aroused 
the women of the country to a sense of their duty 
along this line. As the fall approached the Commit- 
tee interested itself and sought the cooperation of 
women throughout the country to keep the children 
in school. It also favored and sent out broadly 
among women a bulletin from Miss Julia Lathrop, 
head of the National Children's Bureau, in the in- 
terest of the enforcement of the new Child Labor 
law; with equal enthusiasm the Committee favored 
and worked in the interest of the bill pending in 
Congress providing insurance and indemnities for 

33 



AMERICAN WOMEN AND THE WORLD WAR 

our soldiers and sailors. And it concerned itself vi- 
tally with the questions of health and recreation for 
men of the camps. 

By October 1, 1917, the Committee had so far per- 
fected its organization that the work was divided into 
twelve divisions as follows: Food Conservation; 
Food Production and Home Economics; Education; 
Woman in Industry; Social and Welfare Work; 
Liberty Loan; Health and Recreation; Child Wel- 
fare ; Organization ; Registration ; Maintenance of Ex- 
isting Social Agencies ; Home and Foreign Relief. 

The work of these divisions, under their respective 
chairmen, will be described in subsequent chapters. 
An account will also be given of how the plan formu- 
lated and promulgated by the Woman's Committee 
has been worked out and developed in the various 
states. 



CHAPTER III 

ORGANIZATION 

The current of inspiration is turned on from the 
Woman's Committee at Washington — Wheels of or- 
ganization begin to turn in the states — A model town — 
General plan of work adopted by Woman's Committee 

Having formulated a general plan for organizing 
the women of the country, the Woman's Committee set 
about to assist in the organization of the various state 
units. The plan of organization left each state free 
to perfect its organization in the way its leaders 
thought best. There was no stipulated manner of 
doing the work and no settled plan for establishing 
headquarters. The state organizations are financed 
in various ways. In some instances the cooperating 
organizations furnish the funds; in others voluntary 
contributions are used; in many places entertain- 
ments are given to raise funds ; and in several states 
the appropriation of the State Council of Defense 
covers the expense of the women's district organiza- 
tion. While these preliminary arrangements were 
being made in the various states the Woman's Com- 
mittee was fulfilling its mission as a clearing house, 
and continued its efforts toward a general coordina- 
tion of all organized societies of women, the states 
being encouraged and stimulated to work out their 
plans in their own way. 

35 



AMERICAN WOMEN AND THE WORLD WAR 

It is most interesting to follow the work of the 
various states and to note how each has handled its 
individual problem. Alabama began early to center 
its efforts on social service; Connecticut specialized 
in medical service; Virginia took up public health; 
Nebraska went to work early for food production and 
conservation; Wisconsin did effective home work for 
county and town ; Kansas, besides conducting the won- 
derful work done by farmers' wives, was very active 
in a work organized by the wife of Brigadier Gen- 
eral C. Martin, who marshaled the women of her 
state for war work under an organization called the 
Military Sisterhood; in Illinois the women organized 
butlers serving wealthy families, culinary experts, 
cooks' unions, hotel and club stewards, etc.; prizes 
were offered for the best wheatless, meatless menus, 
and food conservation meetings were held everywhere 
in the state. Meetings for women of foreign birth 
were held throughout Illinois, at which the women 
were taught to speak and understand English. They 
were invited to bring their babies to the class and it 
soon became necessary to ask for voluntary nurses 
to take care of the babies. It was in Chicago that a 
woman conceived the idea of establishing a flag hos- 
pital, and she called for volunteers to assist in keep- 
ing the flags of Chicago clean and mended. 

The organization of women initiated by the 
Woman's Committee not only extended through the 
forty-eight states but spread to the entire territory 
over which float the Stars and Stripes. Mrs. E. 
Arnett Smith, of Christobal, Panama Canal Zone, 
was asked by the Woman's Committee to represent 
the district in which she lived in mobilizing the great 

36 



THE WOMAN^S COMMITTEE 

army of women for war work. Porto Rico and the 
Philippine Islands were also asked to organize. A 
temporary chairman was appointed in the Hawaiian 
Islands, and Alaska kept pace with the other states 
in perfecting its organization under the chairman- 
ship of Mrs. Thomas J. Donohue. 

By June 15, 1917, six states had fully organized 
and had reported permanent chairmen. These states 
were South Dakota, Texas, Ohio, Alabama, Iowa and 
Colorado. 

What may be considered a mile post in the progress 
toward the coordination of the women's organization 
for war work was the conference held in Washington 
on June 19, 1917, between the Woman's Committee 
of the Council of National Defense and heads of fifty- 
nine national women's societies. The delegates came 
to Washington at the call of the Woman's Committee 
to present their views to the end that war work might 
be carried on systematically and harmoniously 
throughout the nation. This was perhaps the most 
notable gathering of women ever held in America, 
and during the all-day session many plans of far- 
reaching influence were initiated and many valuable 
experiences and ideas were exchanged. The organi- 
zation of vigilance committees was suggested, to watch 
for violations of ethical laws governing labor and to 
prevent the employment of women in the place of 
men at half the men's salaries. It was decided to 
oppose any attempts to annul laws governing the em- 
ployment of women and children in industry as well 
as the exploitation of children. Mrs. Carrie Chap- 
man Catt, President of the National American 
Woman's Suffrage Association, declared this to be 

37 



AMERICAN WOMEN AND THE WORLD WAR 

the greatest problem of the war and made a strong 
plea that the women stand for equal pay for equal 
work. Another important feature of this meeting 
was the announcement of the organization of women 
physicians of the National Woman's Medical Asso- 
ciation for maternity service and to fight infant mor- 
tality. Dr. Esther Pohl-Lovejoy, of Portland, Ore- 
gon, represented the Association in Washington. 
Dr. Love joy had been authorized by her organization 
to go to France to study conditions there, and the 
Woman's Committee gave her letters of introduction 
to the American officials in France. Dr. Lovejoy's 
reports from time to time to the Woman's Commit- 
tee and to her own society will form valuable data 
upon which to base serious work of the future, and 
will constitute an important chapter in the history of 
the work of American women in the World War. 

Even in these early days of war thousands of 
women were already mobilized as was shown by the 
report of the representatives of the Needlework 
Guild of America, who stated that more than two 
hundred and fifty thousand women were ready to 
engage in war work. Spontaneous pledges of earnest 
efforts along many avenues constituted an inspiring 
feature of that meeting. The Association of Col- 
legiate AlumnaB reported that its chief interest would 
lie in safeguarding moral conditions at the camps, 
and the National Special Aid Society reported that 
it had already sent sixty-five nurses to France, was 
giving French lessons to nurses, training aviators, 
and having books printed for them in order to get 
them into the hands of the enlisted men more 
promptly. Miss Mabel Boardman reported that to 

38 



THE WOMAN'S COMMITTEE 

that date the American Red Cross had enlisted more 
than nine thousand trained nurses. The Woman's 
Christian Temperance Union, through its president, 
Miss Anna Gordon, reiterated its strong stand for 
national prohibition and declared its belief that the 
greatest waste in America comes from alcoholic bev- 
erages. The United Daughters of the Confederacy- 
agreed to care for the children of women engaged in 
war industry by turning their homes into day nurser- 
ies, and the National President, Mrs. O. D. Oden- 
heimer, reported that some members had volunteered 
to take as many as ten or fifteen children into their 
homes. Mrs. C. Van Rensselaer of the National 
League for Woman's Service made the remarkable 
report that progress for constructive preparedness 
were under way in thirty-nine states. Mr. Lester 
Scott, representing the Camp Fire Girls, was the only 
man delegate at the conference. He said that more 
than ninety-five thousand girls were cooperating with 
the Department of Agriculture, working with the 
Bed Cross, adopting Belgian babies, and canning 
vegetables and fruits. From this meeting radiated 
in every direction a stimulating and powerful influ- 
ence of incalculable benefit. 

As a further stimulus to the work of state organi- 
zation the Committee sent its executive secretary, 
Mrs. Ira Couch Wood, for a tour through the states 
of Indiana, Kentucky, Ohio, Michigan, Illinois, Iowa, 
Kansas and Nebraska, with the view to the perfection 
of the organization of the Committee in these states. 
The survey made by Mrs. Wood proved interesting 
and valuable and her direct message from the 
Woman's Committee to the leaders in these states 
; 39 



AMERICAN WOMEN AND THE WORLD WAR 

was helpful and inspiring to them. Later, members 
of the Committee personally assisted in the organiza- 
tion work of other states, Mrs. Lamar in North Caro- 
lina, Miss Wetmore in Texas and Mrs. Moore in In- 
diana. Not only did these women give their per- 
sonal attention to state organizations when their as- 
sistance was needed, but the Woman's Committee 
continually sent out information and assistance from 
its headquarters in Washington, leaving nothing un- 
done that could aid the states in their work. 

Perhaps the most striking example of prompt and 
efficient organization came from a thriving and ener- 
getic town in the Middle West. The men and women 
in this town of about five thousand people were ani- 
mated by the desire common to all Americans to be 
of real service to the nation. They came to the con- 
clusion that the best way to begin was to make their 
community life as fine and serviceable and uplifting 
as it could be. 

A democratic group of representative men and 
women canvassed the situation thoroughly, and made 
up their minds as to what, in general, needed to be 
done to carry out their purpose. The War Emer- 
gency Union was formed, the men choosing certain 
lines of work, the women certain others. A joint 
committee was provided for and headquarters es- 
tablished in the Community House, with a paid secre- 
tary and volunteer help. The men devoted them- 
selves to finance, recruiting, drills for home defense, 
food production. Vacant areas were plowed by trac- 
tor and assigned to citizens; home gardens encour- 
aged; lectures on gardening given; and seeds and 
fertilizer furnished to boys and girls, who were un- 

40 



THE WOMAN^S COMMITTEE 

der responsible leadership. They held organized 
sales of surplus garden produce in the village, 
through one of the markets, and established a co- 
operative central delivery for all the stores. They 
started an Honor Roll placed in the center of the vil- 
lage for all men entering the Army and Navy. 

On July 4th, on the village green there were re- 
produced, with full detail of costumes and wording, 
two dramatic scenes from American history — ' ' Wash- 
ington Receiving his Sword and Commission from 
the Continental Congress,'' and ''The Signing of the 
Declaration of Independence." Those proved a 
splendid stimulant to patriotic endeavor. The Boy 
Scout organization was developed to great usefulness 
and sports and entertainments for men at an adja- 
cent training station were organized. 

The women called together all the presidents of the 
local organizations of women in the village, and some 
women to act for the unorganized women, and formed 
a local unit of the Woman's Committee, Council 
of National Defense. A permanent chairman was 
elected, who, with two other women chosen by the 
central group, became members of the joint commit- 
tee of the War Emergency Union. 

The women undertook the registration of village 
women for service; then centered their interest in 
food conservation, which included lectures and 
demonstrations by several home economics experts 
on all aspects of food preservation and substitution, 
household and personal economy, budget making, etc. 
All those lectures were given in the Woman's Club 
house, and were free to women in the village, the 
Club assuming all expenses. Actual canning, dry- 

41 



AMERICAN WOMEN AND THE WORLD WAR 

ing and preserving were carried on in the school house 
kitchen in charge of an expert, women bringing their 
own vegetables and fruit, and paying the actual cost 
of jars, etc. Certain days were set aside in the school 
for the members of the Relief and Aid Society to can 
surplus vegetables donated from private gardens to 
be used the following winter in charity work. 

Red Cross work was a part of their program. One 
parish house was kept open every day for the making 
of surgical supplies, hospital garments and comfort 
bags for soldiers at home and abroad. A branch of 
the Navy League worked every day at the Woman's 
Club house, making supplies and comforts for the 
sailors. 

Every sewing society and church guild or fraternal 
group in the village agreed to keep in session all sum- 
mer to make garments for the women and children 
of our Allies. Money to buy materials for the work 
was raised by a systematic collection of waste paper 
twice a week. This was marketed with a substantial 
profit in a city sixteen miles distant ; delivery trucks, 
otherwise returning empty, were the means of trans- 
portation. 

A group under the direction of the Relief and Aid 
Society undertook to see that all local charities were 
maintained. Volunteers are assigned from the regis- 
tration lists to help at playgrounds, parks and 
beaches; a number are taking social service training 
in a School of Civics and Philanthropy, and receiv- 
ing practical experience in neighborhood visiting, un- 
der the direction of the Community Nurse; others 
have volunteered for service in a near by city settle- 
ment and a day nursery, and a city infant welfare 

42 



THE WOMAN'S COMMITTEE 

station is supported. Three groups of Camp Fire 
Girls were organized who are giving splendid com- 
munity service. 

The women joined others in neighboring towns to 
maintain a "Khaki Teahouse" for officers in the 
training camp. They entertain soldiers and sailors 
at beach parties, at the Community House and in 
private homes. One parish house is opened one night 
a week for dances for the men from the training 
camp. Magazines and newspapers are collected for 
the soldiers, and one sewing society undertook to 
mend their clothes. 

There was a joint committee of men and women, 
on public health and sanitation, which undertook a 
complete survey of village conditions. This resulted 
in a better system for the disposal of garbage, puri- 
fication of the water supply, and a campaign for the 
elimination of all standing water, rubbish piles, tin 
cans and other breeding-places for flies, mosquitoes 
and microbes. 

Altogether it is as busy a village as one could 
wish, showing the finest kind of constructive patriot- 
ism, defined in terms of work close at home. The 
patriotic program planned and carried out to the 
letter by the men and women of this town could be 
followed in every town in America with profit to the 
nation, the town and every individual in the town. 

Having seen the wheels of organization begin to 
turn, one by one, in the states, and having seen the 
beginning of what promised to be successful coor- 
dination in each of its forty-eight sections, the 
"Woman's Committee turned its attention to the closer 
organization of its own work. 



CHAPTER IV 

REGISTRATION 

Registration of America's woman power begun by 
many private organizations — Confusion results — That 
taken by Woman's Committee recognized as official by 
Government — AU organizations then cooperate for 
common good and work proceeds throughout the nation 

England found it necessary to register its women 
for war service, and both France and Canada later 
took such a registration. Therefore the Government 
and the women leaders of America realized very early 
in the struggle that it was highly advisable, if not 
absolutely necessary, for the country to know to what 
extent it might depend on its women should they be 
needed in large numbers to meet the new situation. 
The proportion of men to women being much greater 
in this country than it is in England, it is extremely 
doubtful if women will ever be called upon here to 
the extent to which the women of England have been 
called. However, the demand created in the early 
days of the European war for increase of workers 
in certain of our industries was immediately felt 
among the women industrial workers and this de- 
mand has been steadily increasing since 1914. 

Confusion resulted regarding registration in vari- 
ous parts of the country because many private organi- 
zations were registering women for war service. 

44 



THE WOMAN'S COMMITTEE 

Some of these registrations were taken for the benefit 
of the organization taking the registration and others 
were intended to help the Government. In the chap- 
ter devoted to ''Women in Industry *' and also in 
that containing the history of the National League for 
Woman's Service, mention is made at length of the 
registration taken by that organization. This was 
begun soon after war was declared in Europe and 
was of such practical value that the Secretary of the 
Department of Labor approved of the registration 
and made use of the information the National League 
for Woman's Service was able to furnish. This 
registration was designed purely to facilitate the work 
of the government and to help the women, by ascer- 
taining from the firms holding government contracts 
the number of women workers needed; it sought to 
register the women of the country who wanted paid 
work under government contracts ; and then to bring 
the job to the woman and the woman to the job. 
That the registration was of the highest value to all 
concerned is shown by the fact that the Committee in 
charge of registration in six months received from 
firms holding government contracts more than nine 
thousand calls for women workers. The practical 
value of the registration is also shown by the wide use 
the Department of Labor has been able to make of it, 
and by the recognition of the work by Government of- 
ficials in a position to judge of its value. This regis- 
tration should not have been confused with the more 
general registration of women for war service which 
was undertaken by other organizations, and which in- 
cluded both voluntary and paid service of all kinds. 
The General Federation of Women's Clubs very 

45 



AMERICAN WOMEN AND THE WORLD WAR 

early began to take a complete registration of its 
women for war service, and the Daughters of the 
American Revolution likewise made a thorough regis- 
tration of its members, as did other such organiza- 
tions. All doubtless were of great value to their re- 
spective organizations. It was very natural, then, 
that when the Woman's Committee, at the request of 
the National Council of Defense, announced in July 
a general registration of the women of the country, 
that there should have arisen much confusion. In 
order to clear up the situation the Woman's Commit- 
tee, on July 2, 1917, sent out a letter to the state 
chairmen as follows: 

We send you herewith a correct form for the registra- 
tion card, which has been approved by the Council of Na- 
tional Defense and the Woman's Committee. The Registra- 
tion for the service of women, which will be taken on these 
cards, is not intended to be a census in the government 
meaning of the word, because it will not be obligatory and 
will not be undertaken by the national government but 
through the states. The aim of the registration of women 
is, however, to record in definite form, the training, ca- 
pacity, and the willingness for service of as many women 
as can be reached throughout the country. This registra- 
tion is, we repeat, entirely voluntary, but every woman 
should be given an opportunity to register for patriotic 
service if she so desires. This card has been prepared 
after consultation with the Census office so that if later the 
government wishes to take a census of its woman power, 
these cards can be utilized for this purpose. 

Much confusion has resulted in many states from private 
organizations of all kinds taking a registration, either of 
their own membership or for general purposes. The issu- 
ance of this official registration card should clear up this 

46 



THE WOMAN'S COMMITTEE 

situation, because this card will supersede all others for 
women's service. It may be possible that women having 
registered once, or even many times, with private societies 
may not wish to register again. In this case some arrange- 
ment should be made in each state whereby the re'gistration 
taken by the private societies may be so summarized and 
placed in the state, or local headquarters of the State 
Divisions of the Woman's Committee, it may be utilized 
in conjunction with these registration cards. It would be 
preferable to have all previous registrations reentered upon 
the official cards, or invite all women, whether or not they 
have registered elsewhere, to register again on these cards. 
This matter will have to be worked out according to the 
best judgment of the women in the several states. The 
official card will be retained in the local headquarters and 
summaries of the registration sent to State and National 
headquarters. 

The Council of National Defense has agreed to print 
$2,000 worth of these cards at the Government Printing 
Office in Washington. They jSgure this will amount to 
about half a million cards, with instructions to accompany 
them. This, of course, will be only a beginning. There- 
fore, Mr. Gifford, Director of the Council of National De- 
fense, has requested that in such states as have appropria- 
tions for defense work, the State Councils be asked to 
print these cards for recording the service of women. If 
the cooperation of the State Councils can be secured in this 
matter, it will make it possible for the government to sup- 
ply immediately such states as have not yet made any ap- 
propriations for defense work. 

Several states, where the Woman's Committee has not 
sufficient funds to carry out this work, will adopt the 
plan of asking every woman who registers for voluntary 
contribution; in some cases, from one cent to one dollar; 
others, leaving the contribution entirely unlimited. In 
still others, a request will be made to each woman register- 

47 



AMERICAN WOMEN AND THE WORLD WAR 

ing that she pay ten cents to help cover the expense of the 
registration throughout the state. You are at liberty to 
adopt any financial plan which your State Division and the 
State Council of Defense approves. 

We shall send you also complete instructions as to just 
how to file this card, but in order to make it perfectly com- 
prehensible, we will add a few words now. 

The idea is, that after filling in the upper half of the 
card with the personal qualifications of the woman who ap- 
plies, she should select below either the occupation in which 
she has already had training, and wishes to serve, or in 
which she desires training. Let us suppose, for instance, 
that she is volunteering for gardening, under the general 
heading of Agriculture. After she has made her choice, en- 
circle No. 4 to show that she has had training in this line, 
or underline Gardening if she wishes to learn this branch. 
Then, in the tab at the top marked Agriculture, if her serv- 
ice is trained, the "U," meaning untrained, will be stricken 
out, leaving the "T" and No. 4 entered after it indicating 
the woman is trained in the No. 4 division, or Gardening, 
under the general heading of Agriculture. If she is un- 
trained and wishes to study this branch, the "T," indicating 
trained, will be stricken out and the "U" left, followed by 
the No. 4, showing that she wishes training in Gardening, 
under the general heading of Agriculture. This having 
been entered, if the woman offers no other service, either in 
the form of contribution or in training that she may have 
had, aU of the other tabs are cut off on the line below this 
heading, leaving the one tab of Agriculture standing up on 
the card. If the woman should also offer some other service, 
under Domestic or Industrial, for instance, then the tabs 
for the two services she offers will be left standing, and all 
the others will be cut off. 

The registration card is as follows : 

48 



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.a 



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O 

P. 



P^ O 





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Is 


Va 


60 

a 






fl 


V 


03 


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<a 


03 


U 




h 


a 


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be 




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btl 


u 


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49 






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c8 "2 



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O) f;3 



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U 



u 



Aerilcultural 



Clerical 



Domestic 



Industrial 



U 



Professional 



WOMAN'S COMMITTEE- 



NO. 



(Sign only one of these cards j 

Name In full 

(Last name) 



(First name) 
Tel. 

Address ^•;.- v;- ;• ^°' ' 

(City or town) (No. and street or R. D. No.) 



Age (in years) Married or single 

Color or race County of birth 

Citizen: By birth By naturalization 

Persons dependent upon you, if any 

Service offered (specify whether volunteer, expenses only, or paid) 



Time pledged for service 

If training is wanted, Tuition 

specify line paid or free . 



TRAINING AND EXPERIENCE (ENCIRCLE NUMBER TO LEFT OF 

ONE IN WHICH YOU WISH 



I. Agricultural 

1 Dairying 

2 Farming 

3 Fruit raising 

4 Gardening 

5 Poultry raising 

6 Stock raising 

II. Clerical 

10 Accountant 

11 Bookkeeper 

12 Cashier 

13 Clerical work 

(gen.) 

14 Filing 

15 Office assistant 

16 Office manager 

17 Private secretary 

18 Typewriter 

19 Shipping clerk 

20 Stenographer 

III. Domestic 

30 Care of children 

31 Cleaning 

32 Cooking 

33 Housekeeping 

34 Industries by 

home employ 't 



35 Knitting 

36 Laundress 

37 Practical 

38 Trained attendant 

39 Seamstress 

40 Waitress 

IV. Industrial 

50 Baker 

51 Boarding house 

52 Buyer 
Cook: 

53 Camp 

54 Institutional 

55 Dressmaker 
Factory: 

56 Needle trades 

57 Food trades 

58 Leather trades 

59 Hat trades 

60 Metal trades 

61 Munitions 

62 Paper and 

printing 

63 Wood trades 

64 Textiles 

65 Forewoman 

66 Inspector 

67 Janitress 

(cleaner) 



68 


Laundry opera- 




tive 


69 


Manager 


70 


Manicure and 




hairdr. 


71 


Messenger 


72 


Milliner 


73 


Retail dealer 


74 


Restaurant 


75 


Saleswoman 


76 


Waitress 


V. Professional 


80 


Actress 


81 


Architect 


82 


Artist 


83 


Author 


84 


Chemist 


85 


Dentist 


86 


Dietician 


87 


Draftsman 


88 


Engineer 




Handicrafts: 


89 


Metals 


90 


Textiles 


91 


Woods 


92 


Journalist 


93 


Laboratory 




worker 



50 



T T 

J V 

Public Service Social Seivice 



Red Cross & Allied Relief 



Miscellaneous 



Contributions 



COUNCIL OF NATIONAL DEFENSE 



■ Division Unit 



Present occupation 

By whom employed 

Where employed 

References 

Education (graduate or length of time attended) : 

Grammar College (give name) 

High or Specialized 

private training 



Emergency service (specify whether volunteer, expenses only, or paid) 

Will you go 

anywhere? Home town only? In United States? 



How soon can you start? 



OCCUPATION IN WHICH YOU ARE TRAINED. UNDERLINE 
SERVICE OR TRAINING 



94 Languages (for- 
eign) : 

Bead well 



Speak well 

95 Lawyer 

96 Lecturer 

97 Librarian 

98 Musician 

99 Osteopath 

100 Pharmacist 

101 Photographer 

102 Physician 

103 Publicity 

104 Statistician 

105 Surgeon 

106 Teacher (sub- 

ject) ; 

Of adults 

Of children , 



116 Telegraphy 

117 Wireless 

118 Telephone 
Transportation: 

119 Aviatrix 

120 Horse 

121 Motor car 

122 Motor cycle 

123 Power boat 

124 Railroad 



VI. Public Service 

110 Inspector 

111 Institutional mgr. 

112 Mail carrier 

113 Police patrol 

114 Postmistress 

115 Signaling 



VII. Social Service 

130 Camp work 

131 Charities — Which? 

132 Club executive 

133 District nursing A. 

134 Hospital B. 

135 Industrial wel- C. 

fare D. 

136 Investigator E. 

137 Playgrounds 

138 Protective assoc'n F. 



VIII. Red Cross and 
Allied Relief 

Instruction : 
Surgical dress- 
ings 
151 Dietetics 

Elementary hyg. 
First aid 
Garments — 
Hospital 
Civilian 



150 



152 
153 
154 



Recreational: 

139 Dancing 

140 Music 

141 Reading aloud 

142 Relief visiting 

143 Settlement 

144 Social clubs 



IX. Miscellaneous 

X. Contributions 

. Ambulance 
Driver for car 
Duplicating mach. 
Funds 

Home for convales- 
cent hospital 
Hospital 
G. Laboratory 
H. Motor boat 
I. Motor car 
J. Typewriter 
K, Share home with 
widow or children 



51 



AMERICAN WOMEN AND THE WORLD WAR 

In order further to assist the women to under- 
stand clearly the full meaning of registration the 
Woman's Committee issued another letter on Sep- 
tember 22, 1917, containing the following: 

Objects of Registration for Women 

1. To give every woman an opportunity to offer to her 
country such service as she is best fitted to render. 

2. To interpret to the Government the possibilities of 
the woman power of the country. 

3. To furnish accurate information to the Government 
of the capacities in which women are now serving, whether 
in their own homes or in paid pursuits, trades, or pro- 
fessions. 

4. To have in every community lists of women carefully 
classified, who are willing to be called upon for trained or 
untrained service to the State or the Nation. 

5. To ascertain which women are available for service 
outside the home, and which are not. 

6. To list the women who wish to take training in order 
to give more efficient service. 

7. To be able to furnish women for local paid positions, 
whether in Government service or not. 

8. To be able to place women who can volunteer their 
services in positions of usefulness in many fields. 

9. To have a registry of the capacities and training of 
the women of the country as the basis of the work of the 
Woman's Committee of the Council of National Defense. 

Success of Registration 

The Registration for Service of the women of any state 
will be successful in so far as — 

1. It reaches all classes of women. 

2. Distinguishes accurately between trained and untrained 
service. 

52 



THE WOMAN'S COMMITTEE 

3. Suggests possibilities for lines of service and training 
which are of the greatest value to the Government at the 
present time, or are new to women. 

4. As it has sufficient publicity to secure its complete 
understanding by women. 

5. As it has the full approval of the State authorities as 
it has of the Council of National Defense. 

6. As it fits women to the needs of the Government and 
the community. 

7. As the cards are so filed as to enable the state or local 
committees to respond promptly and adequately to any 
Government calls for the service of women. 

These objects can only be attained by careful study of 
the registration card itself, with its many possibilities, and 
of the Government "Instructions," and after organization 
of the Woman's Committee in any State has been extended 
to reach the women in every part of it. 

Methods of Conducting Registration" 

Registration may be conducted in two ways: — 

1. On a special day or during a period of time (one or 
two weeks), set aside by proclamation of the Governor or 
the State Council of Defense; or 

2. Conducted gradually as the work of the Woman's 
Committee grows. The former is advised as it makes the 
Registration official (though not obligatory) in the State, 
makes a good "Talking point" for publicity and work 
of the Committee and serves to get the Registration 
started. 

The general chairmen of counties, cities, wards and pre- 
cincts may serve as Chairmen of Registration, but pref- 
erably there should be a special Chairman of Regis- 
tration selected for the local work. It should be definitely 
assigned to some one, as it requires much study and care 
to produce the inspiring result of a successful registra- 
tion. 

53 



AMERICAN WOMEN AND THE WORLD WAR 

Registration may be conducted either by school districts 
or voting precincts, depending upon the best manner of 
reaching the women in the individual state. It should, how- 
ever, be undertaken by means of one or the other of these 
units whose confines are known, so that overlapping and 
duplication may be avoided. Assigning definite places for 
registration is a preferable method to a house to house 
canvass for several reasons. The latter requires too many 
women as registrars for all to be well trained. Registration 
is a privilege which should be sought by women — not forced 
upon them — and there is a fine psychological effect in all 
women doing the same thing at the same time of their own 
volition. 

The State Chairman of Registration Department should 
choose her Committee very carefully, securing, if possible, 
some prominent librarians on it, as they are experts in 
classification, and taking care to include women from all 
classes of the population and from some of the larger 
women's organizations in the State. The Chairman of 
"Women in Industry" and "Training Classes" for women 
should be members of this Committee. This Central Com- 
mittee on Registration should plan the work of the state 
with the approval, of course, of the Executive Committee of 
the State Division. 

The local Chairman of Registration in counties and cities 
may either be chosen by this Central Committee on Regis- 
tration, or the choice left to the General Chairman of the 
county. The city Chairman of Registration will, of course, 
choose the ward and precinct registrars, or "captains and 
lieutenants of registration" as they have been called in 
some states. From five to eight women should be trained 
for each precinct or school district registration. These 
registrars should be responsible for furnishing all supplies 
for the registration posts, tables, chairs, pens, ink, blotters, 
etc. 



54 



THE WOMAN'S COMMITTEE 



Training of Registrars 

The Central Committee on Registration will of course 
make themselves thoroughly familiar by careful study with 
the registration cards, the official "Instructions," which will 
be found a good guide, the methods of filing, the particular 
needs of the State or the Government for the service of 
women, the professions or trades open to women, the par- 
ticular points upon which opposition may possibly be met, 
the localities which need more special education, the general 
methods of local publicity, etc. 

This Central Committee should then designate certain 
places in the State where the county chairmen of Registra- 
tion can be assembled for training, expert leaders or 
teachers being provided. In some states one expert goes 
from place to place holding these classes in registration. 
In others a group is first trained, and these women go to 
different localities throughout the State to hold these classes. 

The County Chairmen of Registration then take up the 
work of passing on their training to the city ward and 
precinct registrars. In all the larger cities open meetings 
should be held where the registration is explained in detail, 
the women being gathered to such meetings by adequate 
publicity, general announcements at club meetings, etc. 
The training should be conducted in groups, and questions 
particularly encouraged. The queries of the prospective 
registrars represent fairly well the questions which will be 
asked them on registration day and uniform interpretation 
should be given. The registrars should be drilled in actu- 
ally making the registrations, as this practice work will 
greatly facilitate the filling of the cards at the registration 
booths. In certain states it has been found advisable to 
have the large organizations of women register their own 
membership, but this should be done by a member espe- 
cially trained as a registrar, meeting the club members at a 
special time and place. The cards should not be sent out to 

55 



AMERICAN WOMEN AND THE WORLD WAR 

the members to fill. Though the cards are arranged so that 
they may be filled out by the individual woman who is regis- 
tering, that is not a good plan, as so many questions arise 
which should have a uniform interpretation given by the 
trained registrars. 

Points to be Emphasized 

Certain misconceptions concerning the cards are certain 
to be met, and the following items should be emphasized in 
the clearest and most definite way possible. 

1. Registration is voluntary; women will not be drafted 
in the Government service. 

2. Women will not be taken from their homes for Gov- 
ernment service either here or in Europe, unless they defi- 
nitely offer themselves for such service. 

3. If a woman registers as "trained" and capable of self- 
support this will not give cause for her husband to be 
drafted. 

4. If a woman registers for service at this time, and 
when called later finds herself unable by changed conditions 
to respond to the call, no punishment or criticism will fall 
upon her. 

5. Women should register for what they are doing now 
and for what they have been trained to do, whether or not 
they can give any extra service now. 

6. Registration along industrial lines is not intended to 
remove women from their present positions, nor to permit 
them to be exploited by unauthorized appeals for "war 
service." 

7. Registration is intended for women loyal to America, 
whether or not they are naturalized citizens, and should not 
be forced on unwilling or disloyal women. 

8. Children under 14 (or under the age of the Com- 
pulsory School Law) are considered as "dependent" upon 
the mother whether or not she provides the actual money 
for their support. 

56 



THE WOMAN'S COMMITTEE 

9. Whereas experience for many years may be considered 
equivalent to "training" in some trades, or occupations, the 
experience must be carefully weighed as to its value before 
a woman registers as trained. In other words a woman 
who has fed a few chickens at the back door, can hardly 
be called a "trained'^ poultry raiser. If she has raised 
chickens for profit for some years, and conducted a busi- 
ness, she might be considered trained. 

10. Women will not be forced to give their exact age, but 
are advised to do so, as certain Government positions are 
open only to women between certain ages. The age should 
at least be given in decades "over 30 or under 40," etc. 

Items to be Specially Noted 

1. The cards should not be numbered (in left hand upper 
comer) until after the registration day, or period, is over 
and then numbered consecutively for the precinct or school 
district, and entered on the summary card. Further regis- 
tration cards filled at later periods should be numbered by 
the person making the summaries and to whom is assigned 
the filing and care of the cards. 

2. The reverse side of the card is not to be filled neces- 
sarily at the time of registration. This is to be filled when 
the woman desires or takes a definite position either paid or 
voluntary. 

3. The classification of "Graduate Nurse" is omitted on 
the card at the express request of the American Red Cross 
Nursing Bureau It was felt that as the Red Cross was 
taking its own registration of graduate nurses, another 
would be confusing. If it is desired to register a graduate 
nurse (as it will be in some cases) the vacant space at the 
end of the "Professional" class may be used and the title 
written in. 

Publicity 

Methods of Publicity should include cooperation of all 
newspapers in the State, daily and weekly. Some larger 

57 



AMERICAN WOMEN AND THE WORLD WAR 

daily papers will undoubtedly consent to stereotype the face 
of the registration card, and then after use in its own paper 
give the form to the Committee for general use. Copies 
can then be printed very inexpensively and used for pub- 
licity in other papers and for general information. An- 
nouncements of the plans and objects for registration in the 
churches, schools, and of all meeting of women's societies. 
Patriotic rallies and meetings should be held to popularize 
registration; the movie theatres should be used; and every 
possible means taken to spread knowledge of the purposes 
of registration and the meaning of the classifications on the 
card. Local officials and men generally should be interested 
so far as possible in the registration and should be used as 
speakers in many cases. 

Cooperation 

As previously suggested in our second letter on registra- 
tion, the closest cooperation should exist between the De- 
partments of Registration, Education, Maintenance of 
Social Agencies and Women in Industry. Only through 
such association can the talents and training of the women 
as revealed through the registration be brought to fit and 
fill the need of the community, the state, and the National 
Government. A wise and experienced woman as Director 
of volunteers will be found of the greatest service in con- 
nection with the registration, and after it, to give counsel 
and advice to women seeking the best avenue of service. 

The states, being left much freedom in the work- 
ing out of the suggested plans, developed many novel 
and clever ideas. In Louisiana, registration was 
made compulsory by proclamation of the Governor. 
The governors of Arkansas and Missouri named July 
28 as Registration day, and Wyoming held its regis- 
tration July 17. Many of the states registered 

58 



THE WOMAN'S COMMITTEE 

women in the food campaign at the same time they 
registered them for service. In many of the states 
registrars were trained in schools created for this 
instruction. In Ohio and Illinois these schools were 
systematically organized. Illinois, Maryland, Mis- 
souri, Wyoming, Connecticut, California, New Mex- 
ico and Oregon printed their own cards. Each of the 
other states had its proportion of the half million 
cards printed by the government at Washington. 

As an evidence of the cooperation on the part of the 
various large organizations with the Woman's Com- 
mittee in this nation-wide registration of the women, 
the following resolution, passed in October, 1917, is 
of interest: 

Relation of National Organizations 

Whereas: The function of the Woman's Committee of 
the Council of National Defense, appointed by the Council 
of National Defense, is primarily to act: 

First, in an advisory capacity to the Council, and, 

Second, to be the official clearing house of all organiza- 
tions of women to coordinate their activities in a coopera- 
tive manner throughout the United States, and. 

Whereas: The Woman^s Committee is recognized as 
the official Government agent through which all women's 
organizations may work out their own programs, in no way 
losing their identity or curtailing their activities thereby, 
and, 

Whereas: Through the Woman's Committee, the Gov- 
ernment may at any time require concerted action of the 
women's organizations to carry out a specified piece of 
work according to uniform instructions laid down by the 
Woman's Committee of the Council of National Defense; 
therefore, be it 

59 



AMERICAN WOMEN AND THE WORLD WAR 

Resolved: That the undersigned Presidents and Chair- 
men of National organizations, and members of the 
Woman^s Committee, urge upon their State Presidents and 
Chairmen the importance of getting in direct relationship 
with the Chairmen of the Woman's Committee in their re- 
spective States, so as to express through this Service their 
unfailing loyalty to their country in this time of crisis, 

It is Fuether Resolved: That all unofficial registra- 
tions made for the purpose of enrolling women members in 
the individual association shall be called enrollment of mem- 
bers; and that all registrations taken by the Woman's Com- 
mittee acting through the State Divisions, under the au- 
thority of the Council of National Defense, shall be known 
as official registration. 

Signed 

Maude Wetmore, Chairman of the National League for 
Woman's Service. 

Mrs. Philip N. Moore, President National Council of 
Women. 

Mrs. Josiah Evans Cowles, President, General Federa- 
tion of Women's Clubs. 

Carrie Chapman Catt, President, National Woman Suf- 
rage Association. 

Mrs. Joseph R. Lamar. President of the National Society 
of the Colonial Dames of America. 



CHAPTER V 
FOOD CONSERVATION 

Food production, food conservation and home eco- 
nomics — "Food will win the war," says Mr. Hoover — 
Gigantic task is assigned to women — Back yard gar- 
dens yield crop valued at $350,000,000 — Secretary 
Houston's appeal — Mr. Pack's great work. 

Early in the war David Lloyd George said that 
100,000,000 pounds sterling might determine which 
nation would win. Lloyd George believed with 
many others that financing the war would pre- 
sent the greatest problem that would be de- 
veloped by the conflict. It was Herbert Hoover, 
the national food administrator, who perhaps came 
nearer the truth when he said *'Food will win the 
war.^' 

Experience has proved that nations can go ahead 
almost indefinitely financing their military establish- 
ments, that problems of finance can be worked out 
and manufacturing difficulties overcome; but all as- 
sets become valueless from a military point of view 
unless there is a food supply sufficient to sustain the 
armed forces and the civilian population. American 
women almost invariably find their place in every 
great movement and begin work before the men who 
are piloting our great ventures realize that there is 
a place for women that women only can fill, and that 

61 



AMERICAN WOMEN AND THE WORLD WAR 

there is an important work to be done that only- 
women can do. American women recognized the 
weight of their responsibility in this war almost as 
soon as war was declared, but it is doubtful if even 
the most prophetic among them realized that one of 
the fundamental war problems that was early to 
confront the nation was to be committed almost en- 
tirely to the women of the country. 

When it became evident within the first few months 
of war that the production and conservation of food 
was one of supreme military consideration, every 
food producer and every consumer of food products 
in this country became a factor in the military situa- 
tion. Every American housewife was expected to 
take her place in the ranks of those serving their 
country. 

The mother in the kitchen, alone with her con- 
science and her memories, became a food admin- 
istrator in her own right. We have become surfeited 
with statistics. We have talked in terms of millions 
and billions so long that figures have lost their sig- 
nificance, but the fact that ''food will win the war,'* 
and that every woman had been drafted into the 
ranks of the Army of American Housewives, sank 
deeply into the consciousness of every loyal Ameri- 
can woman. 

The President said "Every housewife who prac- 
tices strict economy puts herself in the ranks of 
those who serve the nation." As early as May 5, 
1917, Secretary Houston of the United States De- 
partment of Agriculture, foreseeing the importance 
of women's share in the nation's task, issued the fol- 
lowing appeal : 

62 



THE WOMAN'S COMMITTEE 

To the Women of the United States: 

Every woman can render important service to the Na- 
tion in its present emergency. She need not leave her 
home or abandon her home duties to help the armed forces. 
She can help to feed and clothe our armies and help to 
supply food to those beyond the seas by practicing effective 
thrift in her own household. 

Every ounce of food the housewife saves from being 
wasted in her home — all food which she or her children 
produce in the garden and can or preserve — every garment 
which care and skilled repair make it unnecessary to re- 
place — all lessen that household's draft on the already in- 
suflBcient world supplies. 

To save food the housewife must learn to plan economical 
and properly balanced meals, which, while nourishing each 
member of the family properly, do not encourage overeating 
or offer excessive and wasteful variety. It is her duty to 
use all effective methods to protect food from spoilage by 
heat, dirt, mice or insects. She must acquire the culinary 
ability to utilize every bit of edible food that comes into her 
home. She must learn to use such foods as vegetables, 
beans, peas, and milk products as partial substitutes for 
meat. She must make it her business to see that nothing 
nutritious is thrown away or allowed to be wasted. 

Waste in any individual household may seem to be insig- 
nificant, but if only a single ounce of edible food, on the 
average, is allowed to spoil or be thrown away in each of 
our 20,000,000 homes, over 1,300,000 pounds of material 
would be wasted each day. It takes the fruit of many 
acres and the work of many people to raise, prepare and 
distribute 464,000,000 pounds of food a year. Every ounce 
of food thrown away, therefore, tends also to waste the 
labor of any army of busy citizens. 

Clothing is largely an agricultural product and represents 
the results of labor on the sheep ranges, in cotton fields and 
in mills and factories. Whenever a useful garment is need- 

63 



AMERICAN WOMEN AND THE WORLD WAR 

lessly discarded, material needed to keep some one warm or 
dry may be consumed merely to gratify a passing fancy. 
Women would do well to look upon clothing at this time 
more particularly from the utilitarian point of view. 

Leather, too, is scarce, and the proper shoeing of armies 
calls for great supplies of this material. There are only so 
many pairs of shoes in each hide, and there is a shortage of 
animals for leather as well as for meat. Anything that 
can be done to encourage adults or children to take care of 
their shoes and make them last longer, means that so much 
more leather is made available for other purposes. 

Employed women, especially those engaged in the manu- 
facture of food or clothing, also directly serve their country 
and should put into their tasks the enthusiasm and energy 
the importance of their product warrants. 

While all honor is due to the women who leave their 
homes to nurse and care for those wounded in battle, no 
woman should feel that because she does not wear a nurse's 
uniform she is absolved from patriotic service. The home 
women of the country, if they will give their minds fully 
to this vital subject of food conservation and train them- 
selves in household thrift, can make of the housewife's 
apron a uniform of national significance. 

Demonstrate thrift in your homes and encourage thrift 
among your neighbors. 

Make saving rather than spending your social standard. 

Make economy fashionable lest it become obligatory. 

Recognizing that the various problems involved in 
tbe production, conservation, distribution and con- 
sumption of food constitute one of the nation's most 
vital war considerations, the President appointed 
Mr. Herbert C. Hoover as National Food Adminis- 
trator, and one of the first official acts of Mr. Hoover 
was a call to the women of America. At the meet- 

64 



THE WOMAN'S COMMITTEE 

ing of representatives of national organizations of 
women called by the Woman's Committee of the 
Council of National Defense, and held in Wash- 
ington, June 19, 1917, Mr. Hoover made his first 
appeal. On this occasion he announced his inten- 
tion to ask the women to sign a food pledge card 
and he sought to use the machinery that had been 
created by the Woman's Committee of the Council 
of National Defense for distributing, signing and 
delivering these pledges. The spirit of that meet- 
ing, as voiced by the leaders present, was one of cor- 
dial interest in Mr. Hoover's plan, and the assistance 
of the women of the country through the organiza- 
tions was immediately pledged. However, Mr. 
Hoover had set a date so near the time of this meet- 
ing that women experienced in nation-wide cam- 
paigns feared that there was not time enough to stir 
the women of the country to a sense of their duty, 
and to bring them to a perfect understanding of 
what the National Pood Administrator expected of 
them. This fear, and some doubt of the complete 
success of the campaign, was expressed by Mrs. Car- 
rie Chapman Catt, who spoke out of a wide experi- 
ence in such matters, and who asked that more time 
for preparation be given. That this fear and this 
doubt were justified, subsequent events showed. But 
too much cannot be said in praise of the way the 
leaders in every state in the Union responded to the 
request from national headquarters, and if the first 
campaign in the interest of the signed pledge cards 
was not as complete a success outwardly as was hoped 
for, it was not because the women all over the coun- 
try did not do their utmost to carry out Mr. Hoover's 

65 



AMERICAN WOMEN AND THE WORLD WAR 

wishes. Furthermore, if the actual number of signed 
pledge cards was less than national leaders had hoped 
for, it is impossible to calculate the enormous educa- 
tive value of the campaign, and there is no doubt but 
that through this campaign, a firm foundation was 
laid for more thorough and more constructive work 
that was to follow. 

The Woman's Committee of the Council of Na- 
tional Defense used every wheel in every machine in 
each of the states to make this campaign successful, 
and from national headquarters at Washington let- 
ter after letter went out filled with illumination and 
inspiration to the women all over the country. Not 
only in this campaign did the committee use this 
machinery with telling effect, but at the request of 
the Commercial Economy Board the committee sent 
out numerous letters in the interest of various cam- 
paigns inaugurated by that branch of the Council 
of National Defense. Notable among these was the 
bread saving campaign. Miss Ida Tarbell, one of 
America's most brilliant and influential writers, 
wrote, and the Woman's Committee sent out, some 
extremely interesting and instructive letters on this 
subject. Miss Tarbell also made voluntary contri- 
butions to the magazines and newspapers of the coun- 
try in the interest of this campaign, the success 
of which is evidenced by the statement from the 
Commercial Economy Board to the effect that great 
quantities of bread formerly wasted are now 
saved. 

The elimination of waste in all directions has occu- 
pied the attention of the Woman's Committee, as well 
as the individual women of the country, and the cam- 

66 



THE WOMAN'S COMMITTEE 

paign in the interest of cutting down the cost of de- 
liveries has also been considered extremely efficacious. 
The points involved in this campaign were compli- 
cated and it was difficult in the beginning to show 
how the reduction in the cost of deliveries was to 
mean a saving to the individual consumer. Immedi- 
ately women began to ask, ''I am willing to carry 
small parcels home if by so doing I can help the 
Government; but if I have to pay the same price for 
goods I take home that I do for goods delivered, how 
does this help me and how does it help the Govern- 
ment?" The question involved was a deep one, but 
all over the country business men individually and 
through commercial organizations, as well as through 
national committees appointed for the purpose, have 
been busy working out readjustment plans to meet 
the new situation. There is no doubt but that in 
the near future, through the cooperation of the 
women of the country, the cost of deliveries will be 
reduced, to the profit of the consumer and to the ben- 
efit of the Government; while men, motors and 
horses in large numbers will be released for impor- 
tant work of value to the Government in the prose- 
cution of war. 

The Woman's Committee of the Council of Na- 
tional Defense appointed Miss Tarbell chairman of 
its committee on Food Administration, and, until 
overwork compelled her to take a complete rest, Miss 
Tarbell worked early and late at her desk at the 
Woman's Committee headquarters, at the same time 
giving several hours a day of her valuable time to 
the National Food Administration. Only those who 
have been close to Miss Tarbell, and who have seen 

67 



AMERICAN WOMEN AND THE WORLD WAR 

her working despite physical frailty, day after day 
and week after week, can appreciate the value of the 
service she has rendered, and the spirit of self-sacri- 
ficing patriotism that has inspired her. 

There have been various efforts to estimate cor- 
rectly the amount of food that has been canned, 
dried and preserved in America during the first year 
of the war. One fourth of our country's diet con- 
sists of vegetables, and yet, next to Australians, 
Americans are the world's greatest meat eaters. 
Census returns show that we produce, exclusive of 
potatoes and sweet potatoes, vegetables to the value 
of $216,000,000. The tomato takes first rank with a 
$14,000,000 production to its credit; the onion con- 
tributes one-half as much to the total, while corn is 
third in the list. The annual production of water- 
melons is valued at $5,000,000, and cantaloupes at 
$4,000,000. These figures are based on products 
that reach the city markets and do not include vege- 
tables raised for private consumption. The Food 
Administrator made an urgent and definite appeal 
to the women of the country to preserve as much of 
these products for winter use as possible in order to 
save wheat and other food stuffs so badly needed by 
our allies. Modern machinery has made the can- 
ning, drying and preserving of fruit and vegetables 
comparatively simple. There are hulling machines 
which will take green peas out of the pods at the 
rate of one thousand bushels per day; there are sep- 
arators which will grade the peas according to size; 
there are corn cutters which remove the grain from 
the cob at the rate of four thousand ears an hour, 
and silking machines which will work at equal speed 

68 



THE WOMAN'S COMMITTEE 

— to say nothing of the automatic machine which 
will fill twelve thousand cans a day. 

Perhaps no feature of the national food conserva- 
tion program in which women had a share has been 
productive of more practical results and has meant 
more saving in actual dollars and cents than has that 
of saving the hundreds of tons of food that are an- 
nually wasted because of the condemnation by health 
authorities of the larger cities. Much of this is 
sound. Often boxes of fruits or vegetables are con- 
demned because the cartons have become damp or 
insecure, or because top layers of fruits or vege- 
tables have become spoiled because of careless han- 
dling. The cost of resorting such products to the 
merchant makes impracticable his rehandling them. 
In New York City where tons of such food are dumped 
in the river every day, the women secured permis- 
sion to reclaim that part of this salvage which was 
good. With voluntary labor they sorted fruits and 
vegetables, which were resubmitted to the public 
health authorities, and which were passed by them. 
They opened community canning centers, and women 
who could spare a few hours a day to help pick, sort, 
prepare or can the food were paid for their labor by 
a system of time cards, redeemable with either fresh 
fruits and vegetables at the time, or in canned goods 
later when the food shortage began to be felt. By 
this means an enormous amount of wholesome food 
was saved, not only in New York but throughout the 
country. 

Closely related to the problem of food conservation 
was that of food production, and the Woman's Com- 
mittee appointed as its chairman for this work, Mrs. 

69 



II 



AMERICAN WOMEN AND THE WORLD WAR 

Stanley MeCormick. The division is known as that 
of ''Food Production and Home Economics." At 
the request of Dr. Anna Howard Shaw, chairman of 
the Woman's Committee, Miss Helen W. Atwater 
of the Home Economics office of the Department 
of Agriculture was assigned to cooperate with the 
Woman's Committee. Miss Atwater spends some 
time each day at her desk at the Woman's Commit- 
tee headquarters. Her work consists in making 
available for the committee the services of the Home 
Economics specialists in the Department of Agri- 
culture and in the various State Agricultural Col- 
leges. Miss Atwater is well qualified for these im- 
portant duties. She is the daughter of the late Dr. 
W. 0. Atwater, a pioneer in food nutrition investi- 
gations of the Department of Agriculture, the results 
of which are being utilized today by Great Britain 
and France in their war operations. 

Parallel in importance with the subject of food 
conservation is that of food production, and in this 
also the women of America have been conspicuously 
successful, and have made a contribution of ines- 
timable value to the national war program. Not 
only have the farm women of America participated in 
this highly patriotic work, but the city women have 
done unheard-of things with most spectacular success. 
Mr. Charles Lathrop Pack, president of the National 
Emergency Food Gardens Commission, and president 
of the American Forestry Association, is responsible 
for the statement that the value of the crops raised 
on back yard lots is $350,000,000, and when asked as 
to what part women had in achieving this stupendous 
result, Mr. Pack said, ''The women did it all.'' As 

70 



THE WOMAN'S COMMITTEE 

the result of Mr. Pack's personal interest in this 
movement, and the expert way in which the cam- 
paign conducted by the Emergency Food Gardens 
Commission was managed, 1,100,000 acres of city and 
town land were cultivated in 1917 — and much of this 
had been previously non-productive. It is estimated 
that 3,000,000 food gardens were planted in 1917. 
Mr. Pack called attention to the fact that in 1917 
the glass jar manufacturers of this country had de- 
livered to September 1 approximately 119,000,000 
quart glass jars. A survey of the household supply 
of jars in some twenty typical towns throughout the 
country shows that the housewives of America in 
1917 used but one new jar to over three and one- 
quarter old glass jars on hand. This makes possible 
the statement that the home women of America in 
less than one year after war was declared had re- 
sponded to the call to conserve food to the extent of 
460,000,000 quarts. In addition to this it is said 
that the value of dried fruits and vegetables is sev- 
eral million dollars. 

The slogan of the National Emergency Food Gar- 
dens Association which originated with Mr. Pack is 
''Food F. 0. B. the Kitchen Door." The members 
of this commission are Luther Burbank of Califor- 
nia; Dr. Charles W. Eliot of Harvard; Dr. Irving 
Fisher of Yale; Fred H. Goff; John Hays Ham- 
mond; Fairfax Harrison, president of the Southern 
Railway; Myron T. Herrick, former Ambassador to 
France ; Dr. John Grier Hibben, of Princeton ; Emer- 
son McMillin of New York; A. W. Shaw, of Chi- 
cago; Mrs. John Dickinson Sherman of Chicago, 
chairman conservation department General Federa- 

71 



AMERICAN WOMEN AND THE WORLD WAR 

tion of Women's Clubs; Captain J. B. White of Kan- 
sas City; James Wilson, former Secretary of Agricul- 
ture; and P. S. Bidsdale, editor of the American 
Forestry Magazine, 

Through Mrs. Sherman, the General Federation of 
Women's Clubs worked industriously in the efforts 
toward food conservation. In Kentucky, the Na- 
tional League for Woman's Service carried **The 
Battle Cry of Feed 'em" to every newspaper. The 
Women's Suffrage Organization of Virginia, with its 
one hundred and fifteen branches, did the same. 
The Boys' and Girls' Club of the Agricultural Ex- 
tension Service of the various states cooperated en- 
thusiastically, and the Indian schools of the country 
also enlisted. 

The war bureaus of the countries at war figure 
that there are 38,000,000 men under arms. At a cost 
of forty cents a day to feed a soldier, the daily food 
bill of the armies of the world is $15,240,000. This 
does not touch the thousands of others who have sud- 
denly been drawn from productive enterprise to enter 
war work. This staggering board bill must be met. 
Mr. Pack says ** Camouflage may deceive a soldier's 
eye, but you cannot deceive his stomach — ^he must 
have real food." The world is looking to the United 
States for that food. 

Early in November, 1917, under Mr. Hoover's di- 
rection, a second campaign was inaugurated in the 
interest of enlisting in active service the housewives 
of America in the nation's great army of food con- 
servers. In this campaign none of the machinery of 
the national organizations of women was specifically 
used. The campaign was managed through a special 

72 



THE WOMAN'S COMMITTEE 

campaign committee at Washington, headed by Mr. 
W. E. Ward and Mr. Harvey Hill, men of wide ex- 
perience in such matters. Both Mr. Hill and Mr. 
Ward organized with signal success the great Red 
Cross campaign, which was inaugurated earlier in 
the year. Workers were enlisted through the State 
Pood Administrators. Every organization of women 
in the country responded when called upon, as did 
the individual women everywhere, and half a million 
workers were soon engaged in enrolling the house- 
wives of America for this great army of food con- 
servers. The second campaign was successful from 
every standpoint, and as a material evidence of the 
patriotic spirit of American women, between ten and 
twelve million household enrollment pledge cards 
have been signed. 

From the foregoing the magnitude of our task 
may be imagined and women's part may be calcu- 
lated, for indeed, women are convinced that the 
main part of this burden is theirs. That they have 
met with a high spirit of patriotism every single 
obligation that has been imposed upon them, no one 
can deny; and that they will measure up to every 
responsibility the future may bring, no one doubts. 



CHAPTER VI 
CHILD WELFARE 

Children's Bureau under Miss Julia Lathrop, General 
Federation of Women's Clubs and other organizations 
intensify work in interest of Nation's children — 
— Women work to make Federal Child Labor Law 
effective — New department of Children's Bureau under 
Miss Abbott. 

It did not take a declaration of war to bring the 
Government of the United States to a realization of 
the importance of caring for the moral and physical 
welfare of its children, nor did it tal^e a declaration 
of war to direct the attention of women to this 
work, much of the responsibility of which naturally 
fell on their shoulders. 

For many years the General Federation of 
"Women's Clubs, through a special department, and 
many of its cooperating organizations, such as the 
National Congress of Mothers and Parent-Teachers* 
Association, had been giving a great deal of atten- 
tion to this all important subject. 

The Government had also given recognition to its 
importance by the creation of a Children's Bureau 
under the Department of Labor of which Miss Julia 
Lathrop of Illinois is chief. 

It was logical that the child welfare work that 
developed directly because of the war should be 

74 



THE WOMAN'S COMMITTEE 

definitely linked with this great governmental agency 
and that the emergency plans for meeting the situa- 
tion should merely involve an expansion of the exist- 
ing machinery for looking after the welfare of the 
nation's children, and an intensification of its ef- 
forts. The Woman's Committee promptly asked 
Miss Lathrop to act in the capacity of Executive 
Chairman of its Child Welfare Department. The 
Committee was happy to be guided by her experi- 
enced hand and trained mind. 

The aim of this Department is to safeguard the 
character and the education of the children of the 
United States during the war, by helping to make the 
Federal Child Labor Law effective; by aiding teach- 
ers and superintendents of schools in the care and 
welfare of children; by visiting through its state 
organization, school authorities and labor officials, 
and cooperating with them in an effort to keep chil- 
dren under fourteen in school, decently clothed and 
well nourished. 

**The least a democratic nation can do, which sends 
men into war, is to give a solemn assurance that 
their families will be cared for — not kept from 
starvation, but kept on a wholesome level of com- 
fort,'' Miss Julia Lathrop said soon after war was 
declared. 

When the United States declared war the Chil- 
dren's Bureau under Miss Lathrop at once began a 
study of conditions in foreign countries. **As we 
studied infant and maternal mortality," said Miss 
Lathrop, ''delinquency and dependency, child labor 
and school exemptions, the relation of all those evils 
to the economic status of the family became increas- 

75 



AMERICAN WOMEN AND THE WORLD WAR 

ingly plain, and it was clear that in a country with 
a vast number of men in arms, the first question in a 
review of social conditions is what protection will 
the Government afford the family. Canada is our 
next door neighbor, and her standard and ideals are 
so analogous to our own that her methods of dealing 
with her soldiers are of especial interest. ' ' 

Captain S. Herbert Wolfe generously offered his 
services to make a special study of the Canadian pro- 
visions and this study was published by the Bureau 
under the title **Care of Dependents of Enlisted 
[Men in Canada." At the request of the United 
States Secretary of Labor, Captain Wolfe aided 
in making a similar study of the laws for soldiers' 
pay in the United States and upon these two re- 
ports was based the bill for soldiers' compensa- 
tion which was subsequently introduced into Con- 
gress. 

Believing this bill to be of the most vital import 
the Woman's Committee, through its Chairman, Dr. 
Anna Howard Shaw, sent a letter to the Chairmen 
in the various states asking their interest in the 
support of the bUl. Dr. Shaw stated that she con- 
sidered it a great opportunity for women to urge the 
maintenance of the families of the soldiers, to prevent 
untold sufferings and to bring us through this war 
with families stronger than they otherwise could be. 
The Woman's Committee made a thorough drive to 
bring about a complete understanding of this meas- 
ure among the women of America. Accompanying 
each letter to the state chairmen were fifty copies of 
Secretary McAdoo's digest of the bill, to be sent to 
county chairmen. The Committee urged women to 

76 



THE WOMAN'S COMMITTEE 

write or telegraph Congressmen urging prompt 
passage of the law. 

In an effort to assist in the enforcement of the 
Child Labor Law, which became effective September 
1, 1917, the Woman's Committee, on August 17, 
1917, sent to each state chairman the following let- 
ter: 

Will you help to make the Federal Child Labor Law ef- 
fective? This law goes into effect on September 1, 1917. 
It provides that no child under fourteen shall work in any 
mill, cannery, workshop, factory or manufacturing estab- 
lishment which ships in interstate or foreign commerce. 
Thus it sets free children under fourteen who are today at 
work in any of these industries. It sets them free to give 
them a better chance in the world — so that they may go to 
school. Children under fourteen who have been at work 
have already lost time that can never be made up to them. 

The full benefit to be gained from the new Federal Child 
Labor Law cannot be secured merely by its complete en- 
forcement. The final responsibility rests with the citizens 
of each locality and demands a service outside of the law 
itself. If every child released from work can be sent, 
well nourished and decently clothed, to a good school, under 
a good teacher, then the full benefit of the Federal Child 
Labor Law will be reaped for the country's children. 

This will cost money. It means sacrifice on the part of 
older people; it means taxes for more schools and better 
schools. It means unstinted effort in communities where 
poverty may necessitate scholarships. There is reason to 
believe that comparatively few scholarships will be required, 
and that the important matter is to provide the schools and 
see that the children attend them. 

No words can be too strong to express the importance of 
giving to the nation's children nurture and education in 
the fullest possible measure as a war time protection of our 

77 



AMERICAN WOMEN AND THE WORLD WAR 

last reserves. It cannot but stir American women to know 
that England, after tliree years of war, is urging tlirougli 
the Departmental Committee on Education, a new law, 
keeping children in school until fourteen, allowing no ex- 
emptions and including all rural children and thus going 
far greater lengths than the United States law. 

Indirectly our new law will help rural children in those 
areas where the greatest problem of illiteracy now exists, 
for the nation will not long permit rural children to grow 
up untaught if the education of all other children is se- 
cured. 

If children are not decently clothed and properly fed 
they cannot get the full value of school. Scholarships are 
raised for college and university students to help pay living 
expenses for those who could not otherwise attend the 
highest schools. These scholarships have proved an invest- 
ment of incalculable value to the citizens of the United 
States. 

Scholarships in elementary schools will lay the founda- 
tion for perhaps a greater addition to national power. 

Here is something to do: Please visit your school au- 
thorities and labor officials and find out whether all the 
children in your community under fourteen years of age 
are in school. If the school census and the attendance 
records differ greatly something is wrong. 

Will you find out where the children under fourteen are 
if not in school? 

If you wish to help, please begin to help by filling in the 
accompanying blank as soon as practicable after September 
first and returning it to the Woman's Committee. 

Tlirougli answers to the questions on the accom- 
panying blank much valuable information was se- 
cured. 

The Committee strongly urged the appointment of 
a chairman for Child Welfare in every state and in a 

78 



THE WOMAN'S COMMITTEE 

second letter to the state chairmen, Dr. Shaw said: 
"No other patriotic service should be permitted to 
take the place of the care and welfare of the children 
in our own country. This should be our first con- 
sideration. The future of our country depends upon 
the character and intelligence of its citizens. Al- 
ready the claim is made that juvenile crime is in- 
creasing since the declaration of war and the mobili- 
zation of our armies. If this is true, we should need 
no greater incentive to seek to protect our children 
than this danger with which as a nation we are con- 
fronted. 

** If you have not yet appointed a chairman for 
the Department of Child Welfare, do not delay it 
longer, that each county may be equipped to safe- 
guard the future of our country by safeguarding the 
character and education of our youth. Do every- 
thing through your committee possible to secure the 
cooperation of superintendents and teachers to ad- 
vise and aid you in the common interest of the home, 
the schools and the country." 

After the Child Labor Law went into effect Sep- 
tember 1, 1917, the Secretary of the Department of 
Labor caused to be created a new division of the 
Children's Bureau, in order that the country may 
reap the full benefit of the law. 

With the beginning of the fourth year of the war 
in Europe and the unceasing preparations still going 
forward, which are swallowing up billions of dollars, 
Great Britain, France, Belgium and Germany have 
found that in spite of the woeful need of economy 
along every line, now boiled down to the last dregs, 
there must be no economy exercised when it comes to 

79 



AMERICAN WOMEN AND THE WORLD WAR 

the care of babies, young children and mothers. 
These are the bulwarks upon which the warring na- 
tions must rest after the carnage has ceased and nor- 
mal conditions must be reestablished. 

America, already awake to the danger, and to the 
necessity of continuing and strengthening the pre- 
vention measures then in operation, believed that 
the new Federal Child Labor Law was vital to the 
upbuilding of the new generation. This law forbids 
the shipment in interstate or foreign commerce of 
the product of a manufacturing establishment or of 
a mine or quarry in the United States in which 
within thirty days prior to the removal of the prod- 
uct from such establishment, mine or quarry, children 
have been employed contrary to the following provi- 
sions: First, no child under fourteen to be em- 
ployed at any time in any mill, cannery, workshop, 
factory or manufacturing establishment; second, no 
child between the ages of fourteen and sixteen years 
to be employed in establishments specified in the first 
provision for more than eight hours in any day, or 
more than six days in any week, or between 7 p. m. 
and 6 A. m. ; third, no child under sixteen to be em- 
ployed at any time in any mine or quarry. 

The Attorney General, the Secretary of Commerce, 
and the Secretary of Labor constitute a board to 
make regulations for carrying out the provisions of 
this act. The problem of enforcement is complicated 
and inadequate; provisions in many states have had 
a tendency to frustrate the very purpose for which 
child legislation has been willingly passed. 

In six states child labor laws have been passed 
"which do not call for the appointment of an enforc- 

80 



THE WOMAN'S COMMITTEE 

ing official, and the result is wholesale violation of 
the law. While some states recognize the need of 
such enforcement to the extent of providing one of- 
ficial, with a clerk, to administer the labor law, to 
collect and publish manufacturing and agricultural 
statistics and to perform other varied and numerous 
duties which render it impossible to do justice to the 
work, the result is that neither the spirit nor the let- 
ter of the law is fulfilled. 

The Children's Bureau of the Department of 
Labor has not only been far-reaching in its work for 
the woman and child welfare of the present genera- 
tion, but has been far-seeing in its plans for result- 
ing good to those who will come later. The new 
child labor division is the logical outcome of this 
work. The young woman who has been placed at 
the head of it is one whose life work has been spent 
along the practical lines, a knowledge of which will 
go far toward making the enforcement of the new 
federal law a success. 

This woman is Miss Grace Abbott of Chicago, who 
brings to the work a broad experience in industrial 
matters, both in this country and abroad; executive 
ability of a high order, and an interesting and com- 
pelling influence over those with whom she comes in 
contact. For a month or more before the law went 
into effect she was at work on the details of the ad- 
ministration of the division, v/ith a staff of tempo- 
rary assistants, in order that there might be no delay 
in enforcing the law. The permanent assistants will 
be taken from those experts passing a competitive 
examination in child welfare. 

Miss Abbott lived for many years in an industrial 

81 



AMERICAN WOMEN AND THE WORLD WAR 

neighborhood and was a resident of Hull House, Chi- 
cago, for seven years. She has visited Europe re- 
peatedly to observe industrial conditions, especially 
in countries from which immigration has been large 
in recent years. Since 1908 she has been actively en- 
gaged in work on industrial problems as they have 
affected immigrants, part of the time as executive 
secretary of the Massachusetts immigration commis- 
sion, and more recently as director of the Immi- 
grant's Protective League of Chicago. 

In northern and western Hungary and Cracow, 
Miss Abbott lived among the people, studying their 
habits, their environment and religious and social 
conditions which had a bearing on their daily lives, 
thus making it easier for her to help immigrants from 
those places to learn to readjust themselves to condi- 
tions in America. 

When studying the districts in Galicia, northern 
Hungary and Croatia, she, in company with the vil- 
lage priest, visited the people in their homes, went to 
the parish church where they worshiped, to the pub- 
lic square where their amusements were carried on, 
and to the fields where they worked long hours of 
the day. 

The new law will reach the following conditions as 
set forth by the national child labor committee: 
** Three states, permitting children under fourteen to 
work in factories and mills at all times, and nineteen 
more states permitting it by exemption; sixteen min- 
ing states permitting children under sixteen to work 
in mines; three more by exemption; nine states al- 
lowing night work of children under sixteen, five 
more by exemption; twenty-four states allowing chil- 

82 



THE WOMAN'S COMMITTEE 

dren under sixteen to work more than eight hours a 
day in factories, four more by exemption.'* 

With the national departments actively enlisted to 
safeguard its children; with such women as Miss 
Lathrop and Miss Abbott at the head of the work; 
with the Woman's Committee of the Council of Na- 
tional Defense standing squarely behind the Chil- 
dren's Bureau in everything it undertakes; and 
with leading women in every state in the Union on 
guard for the safety and welfare of the children, 
America need have nothing to fear for the genera- 
tion of its citizens now being developed amidst the 
difficulties and dangers of war. 



CHAPTER VII 

HEALTH AND RECREATION 

Moral and physical welfare of enlisted men the govern- 
ment's first consideration — Woman's Committee, Y. W. 
C. A., and other organizations assist Commission on 
Training Camp Activities — How women have helped in 
many states. 

Addressing a company of women war workers in 
Washington in September, 1917, the Secretary of 
War said: *' Never before in the history of any peo- 
ple has an army been assembled under conditions so 
wholesome, so clean, and so stimulating to the per- 
sonal pride and to the national credit as the army we 
are now assembling in the United States, The old 
stories of soldiers* camps, with their perils, their 
disasters, their temptations, are in a large degree 
past, and because we are a civilized people, because 
our civilization is more than a matter of collars and 
cuffs, because we are a moral people, we have deter- 
mined to surround our army, not with a system of 
prohibitions and restraints, but with a system of 
wholesome environments and stimulating induce- 
ments to self -improvement and high conduct, of such 
character that everybody who visits one of our camps 
will come away thrilled with the thought that at last 
this sort of business can be carried on in a manner 
highly creditable to a great nation. ' ' 

84 



THE WOMAN'S COMMITTEE 

As early as May 18, 1917, the "War Department was 
authorized by Congress and the President to make 
such regulations as seemed advisable concerning con- 
ditions surrounding the camps. Accordingly, Secre- 
tary Baker organized a commission to advise on ques- 
tions relating to the moral hazards in training cen- 
ters; as well as the promotion of rational recreation 
facilities within and without the camps. Of this 
commission Mr, Eaymond B. Fosdick was appointed 
chairman. 

It would be a long story indeed if all of the work 
women have done in the interest of the health and 
happiness of our American soldiers were recorded, 
for in practically all of the splendid plans that have 
been set on foot for safeguarding the health and 
morals of the soldiers on land and sea, women have 
been asked to contribute a large share. 

On Mr. Fosdick 's commission under the Navy De- 
partment are two women, Mrs. Helen King Robinson, 
former state senator from Colorado, and Mrs. Daisy 
McLauren Stevens. The authorized organizations 
working within the camps are, the Young Men's 
Christian Association and Knights of Columbus; and 
there are authorized directors of theaters, libraries, 
athletics and music. The authorized organizations 
working outside the camps are, the Playground and 
Recreation Association of America, in cooperation 
with all organizations both of men and women. In 
addition to these organizations there are two others 
of special interest, which consider in their plans the 
care of girls. These also are under the special au- 
thority of Mr. Fosdick. They are the sub-committee 
on Protective Work for Girls, Miss Maude E. Minor, 

85 



AMERICAN WOMEN AND THE WORLD WAR 

chairman, and the sub-committee on Proper Chape- 
ronage of Girls under Miss Katherine Scott. The 
latter has charge of the "Hostess Houses." 

The Surgeon-General has sent out special commu- 
nications addressed to the men in the camps, and the 
Army Medical Department, the United States Public 
Health Service, the War Department Commission and 
Civil Authorities have all been active in the interest 
of the health and well-being of our soldiers. 

The Secretary of War asked that the Woman's 
Committee cooperate in all of these activities and 
Mrs. Philip N. Moore was appointed chairman of the 
Department of Health and Recreation of the 
Woman's Committee. Mrs. Moore is eminently qual- 
ified to serve as chairman of this committee. She 
has long been prominently identified with national 
movements looking to the betterment of conditions 
among which we live. She was president of the 
General Federation of Women's Clubs and is now 
president of the National Council of Women, Amer- 
ica's largest and most far-reaching organization of 
women. 

In addition to asking the assistance of the women 
of the country through the Woman's Committee, the 
commission of which Mr. Fosdick is chairman asked 
the cooperation and assistance of women's organiza- 
tions wherever they are willing to give their services. 

Mrs. Moore asked that each state chairman of the 
Woman's Committee of the Council of National De- 
fense appoint a member to represent her state in 
this important work. In each state in which there 
is a military camp the name of the man in charge of 
the recreational activities outside of the camp was 

86 



THE WOMAN^S COMMITTEE 

sent to the state chairman with the request that she 
communicate with him and offer the services of the 
Woman's Committee in the state. Inside the camps 
the work is all to be done by the Young Men's Chris- 
tian Association. In the beginning no plans seem to 
have been made by the Navy Department for the 
recreations and protections around the naval camps, 
Mr. Fosdick not having charge of these, and the Y. M. 
C. A. having charge only of fhe outside of the camps. 
The Woman's Committee, through its chairman of 
Health and Recreation, took up the matter of influ- 
ences surrounding the naval camps in the interest of 
an arrangement similar to that regarding the mili- 
tary camps. 

In every state where camps of soldiers are in 
training the Woman's Committee has been grappling 
with the grist of problems that they create. First, 
there is the problem of hospitality. What will be 
practical and acceptable for them to undertake? 
One worker divides the work into retail and whole- 
sale hospitality. The former consists of inviting the 
boys into the homes, taking them on motor drives, 
and furnishing them healthful amusements and 
wholesome company. Wholesale hospitality is de- 
fined as that undertaken by the big organizations 
where soldiers and sailors are invited en masse to 
lectures, entertainments, or dinners. 

As soon as the North Carolina Division of the 
Woman's Committee learned that there was to be a 
cantonment of some sixty thousand men near Char- 
lotte, the women at once began to lay their plans to 
cooperate with the city authorities in making the 
camp what they would desire it to be. The State 

87 



AMERICAN WOMEN AND THE WORLD WAR 

Chairman, Mrs. Eugene Reilly, said that the Com- 
mittee on Health and Recreation was most active in 
arranging with all the women ^s organizations of the 
community to provide entertainment for the soldiers. 
They arranged that every organization in the town 
should adopt or stand sponsor for one company of 
men, furnishing them with amusements, magazines 
and books, inviting them to church and to dinner, 
opening their club or society rooms to them, and in 
every way possible surrounding them with whole- 
some and friendly influences. The Committee Chair- 
man said that the women were just as attentive to 
the soldiers who come to them as strangers from 
New England as they are to their own boys, **and,'' 
she adds, *'we expect that strangers will do the same 
for our boys.'' 

Certainly Massachusetts reciprocated this thought- 
fulness. A special committee from the women's col- 
leges provided club houses and homes outside the 
camp. Their purpose is to have as many of these 
homes as possible where soldiers will find recreation, 
friendly interest and refined surroundings; the kind 
of homes from which the majority of them have come. 
Each home will be provided for by a separate col- 
lege group, either alumnae, undergraduates, or both, 
and each will have a college ** mother." The college 
mother will be permanent or as nearly so as possible, 
but the helpers may vary from week to week. A few 
will give their services in the home itself and others 
will provide the things needed to make it attractive — 
furnishings, games, books, pianos, victrolas. Such 
an undertaking is particularly practicable in the 
case of the reserve officer training camps made up 

88 



THE WOMAN'S COMMITTEE 

largely of college men. With modifications to suit 
local needs the plan could be worked out to advantage 
in connection with almost any camp. 

A helpful camp service in which many of the 
State Divisions are preparing to cooperate, is that 
undertaken by the American Library Association. 
It is organizing committees to collect and distribute 
reading matter in the training camps and has even 
prepared to put up libraries in some of the camps. 
The Missouri Division took hold of this work with 
particular zest, giving the matter wide publicity and 
arranging for the collection of books at local libraries 
throughout the states. It has even furnished boxes 
of the proper dimensions in which to pack the books 
collected. 

Several of the groups of women involved have re- 
echoed the word laid down by the Library Associa- 
tion, that only worth-while books are wanted. "Do 
not go up to the garret and pick up material that 
has been discarded because it is too dull to be kept 
on the library shelves — give the boys the best. They 
want good fiction. They are keen for scientific 
books and periodicals. They want everything you 
can give them about war, about sports, they want the 
news of the world. Because a thing has been printed 
and bound it does not follow that it will be useful to 
send to a cantonment.'' No woman, either, need 
have any doubt about her contributions being well 
taken care of. The American Library Association is 
directly responsible to the Government in this work. 

Where soldiers are temporarily camped in a town, 
or where they are traveling, one much appreciated 
attention is supervising the food that the boys get. 

89 



AMERICAN WOMEN AND THE WORLD WAR 

This seems to have been managed very well by the 
women of the Woman's Committee in Grand Rapids, 
Michigan. They responded immediately not only to 
the call of furnishing good wholesome amusements 
for the boys mobilized at their gates, but during the 
two weeks when the camp of eight hundred boys was 
at Grand Rapids they furnished their meals. The 
different days of the week were assigned to various 
organizations so that while hundreds of women were 
engaged in the feeding of the soldiers, no one group 
was in constant service. In the two weeks the women 
furnished thirteen hundred meals, including break- 
fasts, dinners and suppers. They did it so economi- 
cally that from the allotment of twenty-five cents per 
head a meal, they had a surplus to go into the mess 
fund of the Grand Rapids Battalion, and the boys were 
satisfied, for when the camp broke up the praise came 
to the women from all sides for the catering they had 
done. 

The greatest of all problems that confront the 
women in the vicinity of the camps is that of guard- 
ing the young girl. Where soldiers are stationed 
either temporarily or permanently, the problem of 
preventing girls from being misled by the glamour and 
romance of war and beguiling uniforms looms large. 
Maryland has proposed a Patriotic League of Honor 
which will inspire girls to adopt the highest stand- 
ards of womanliness and loyalty to their country. 
From New York comes the suggestion that the teach- 
ers of girls may be invaluable in making girls realize 
the dangers. In clubs formed for war service guid- 
ance could be given incidentally with instruction. 
Girls employed in the big industries are most in 

90 



THE WOMAN'S COMMITTEE 

danger, but if some happy slogan should be found 
which would in itself constitute a sort of badge of 
courage and loyalty, it would be far better than de- 
pending on supervision. The number it is possible 
to chaperone carefully is necessarily limited. 

Mrs. Philip N. Moore, Chairman of the Health 
and Eecreation Department, made the following 
recommendations which were adopted by the Com- 
mittee as part of the plan of work for that Depart- 
ment: "The Health and Recreation Department of 
the State Divisions of the Woman's Committee will 
work outside the camps and where men are in very 
small groups. The Committee suggests training 
schools for protective officers, resembling those of 
England, to be established in two or three cities in 
the United States and to be run in connection with 
Schools of Philanthropy. The Committee will ask 
these divisions to assist in developing the neighbor- 
ing communities with adequate facilities for provid- 
ing entertainment, comforts and recreation. The 
request will also be made that they attempt to co- 
ordinate all organized and individual work that may 
be offered. The plan includes conferences with com- 
munity organizations, such as churches, lodges, local 
Red Cross, Salvation Army, Y. M. C. A., etc., with a 
view to a composite program. It will also include a 
request to the women of the country to throw open 
their homes and clubs to soldiers and enlist the aid 
of religious, social and fraternal organizations.'' 

The United States Government has spoken in no 
uncertain terms as to what it expects of the existing 
philanthropic and charitable agencies, the women's 
organizations and the machinery of the various state 

91 



AMERICAN WOMEN AND THE WORLD WAR 

organizations in the matter of providing every pro- 
tection for the men in the camps. The result of a 
general survey of the philanthropic agencies of the 
country was very carefully tabulated; the needs of 
the charities or protective associations were formu- 
lated; charts showing opportunities for service were 
prepared; and the strength of the plans was reen- 
forced by publicity in the daily papers. Women 
who were willing to do social service work were 
asked to aid in this Department and to take a course 
in training for the work. The Department asked 
state chairmen to see to it that lists of the training 
classes in philanthropy and social service should be 
posted side by side with the charts showing opportu- 
nities for service in the local charities, and that they 
be given equal publicity. 

The attitude of the Government on this subject is 
best shown by a letter which was sent by the Secre- 
tary of War to the Governor in each state and to each 
state chairman of the Council of National Defense. 
In this letter the Secretary said, 

I am very anxious to bring to the attention of the State 
Councils of Defense a matter in which they can be of 
great service to the War Department. In the training 
camps already estabhshed or soon to be estabhshed large 
bodies of men, selected primarily from the youth of the 
country, will be gathered together for a period of intensive 
discipline and training. The greater proportion of this 
force probably will be made up of young men who have 
not yet become accustomed to contact with either the saloon 
or the prostitute, and who will be at that plastic and gener- 
ous period of life when their service to their country should 
be surrounded by safeguards against temptations to which 
they are not accustomed. 

92 



THE WOMAN'S COMMITTEE 

Our responsibility in this matter is not open to question. 
We cannot allow these young men, most of whom will have 
been drafted to service, to be surrounded by a vicious and 
demoralizing en\dronment, nor can we leave anything un- 
done which will protect them from unhealthy influences and 
crude forms of temptation. Not only have we an in- 
escapable responsibility in this matter to the families and 
communities from which these young men are selected, but, 
from the standpoint of our duty and our determination 
to create an efficient army, we are bound, as a military 
necessity, to do everything in our power to promote the 
health and conserve the vitality of the men in the training 
camps. 

I am determined that our new training camps, as well as 
the surrounding zones within an effective radius, shall not 
be places of temptation and peril. The amendments to the 
Army Bill recently passed, a copy of which I enclose here- 
with (Sections 12 and 13), give the War Department more 
authority in this matter than we previously possessed. On 
the other hand, we are not going to be able to obtain the 
conditions necessary to the health and vitality of our sol- 
diers, without the full cooperation of the local authorities 
in the cities and towns near which our camps are located, 
or through which our soldiers will be passing in transit to 
other points. 

Will you give earnest consideration to this matter in 
your particular state? I am confident that much can be 
done to arouse the cities and towns to an appreciation of 
their responsibility for clean conditions; and I would sug- 
gest that, through such channels as may present them- 
selves to you, you impress upon these communities their 
patriotic opportunity in this matter. I would further sug- 
gest that as an integral part of the war machinery your 
Council make itself responsible for seeing that the laws of 
your State and of Congress in respect to these matters are 
strictly enforced. This relates not only to the camps estab- 

93 



AMERICAN WOMEN AND THE WORLD WAR 

lished under Federal authority, both the present officers' 
training camps and the divisional training camps soon to 
be opened, but to the more or less temporary mobilization 
points of the national guard units. It relates, too, as I 
have indicated, to the large centers through which soldiers 
will constantly be passing in transit to other points. 

As I say, the War Department intends to do its full part 
in these matters, but we expect the cooperation and support 
of the local communities. If the desired end cannot other- 
wise be achieved, I propose to move the camps from those 
neighborhoods in which clean conditions cannot be secured. 



CHAPTER VIII 

PATRIOTIC EDUCATION 

Nation-wide plans are set on foot to induce 3,000,000 
immigrants to attend night schools — "America First" 
Campaign launched — Women's organizations asked to 
help — Woman's Committee appoints Mrs. Catt Chair- 
man of Education — Foreign women flock to night 
schools in Chicago, bringing their babies — Volunteer 
nurses called for. 

•A CAMPAIGN of vital importance and one in which 
women have played conspicuous parts is that called 
*'The America First" Campaign in the interest of 
reaching the 3,000,000 non-English-speaking immi- 
grants in America. Participating in this campaign 
of patriotic education are chambers of commerce of 
various cities, educational associations, religious and 
philanthropic organizations and a large number of 
miscellaneous societies. The campaign is being di- 
rected by the Division of Immigrant Education. 
United States Department of Education. In normal 
times this division pursues activities which may be 
classified as follows : surveys, field investigations, and 
research to ascertain conditions, facilities, and needs, 
in order to establish the basis for constructive na- 
tional, state, and local work; publicity through news 
letters, circular letters, bulletins, articles in the daily 
and periodical press, exhibits, special reports, and by 

95 



AMERICAN WOMEN AND THE WORLD WAR 

lectures and addresses; organization of cooperation 
among public and private agencies, by serving as a 
clearing house, by projecting plans of work, and by 
developing organized facilities upon request ; counsel, 
given through conferences, committee meetings, per- 
sonal interviews, and correspondence. 

On the first of September, 1917, there was begun 
through the cooperation of educators and various in- 
dustrial and social agencies of the United States a 
systematic campaign, (1) for the improvement of 
existing agencies, (2) for the creation of such agen- 
cies where they do not exist, (3) for giving to foreign- 
born persons in the United States the fullest and 
best opportunities for such instruction as will fit them 
for American industrial, social and civic life and for 
citizenship, and (4) for inducing all such persons 
to make the fullest possible use of the opportunities 
offered. This is the ^'America First" campaign, the 
ultimate object of which is a unified and intelligent 
American life and citizenship. 

One object of the campaign has been to induce the 
3,000,000 non-English-speaking immigrants to attend 
night schools and learn the common language of 
America. 

To achieve this purpose and to insure complete 
cooperation and organization on a nation-wide basis, 
Dr. Philander P. Claxton, United States Commissioner 
of Education, upon the request of school authorities 
and others interested, has designated men and women 
who deal with the immigrant and his problems to serve 
upon a National Committee of One Hundred. Fed- 
eral officials, representative industrial leaders, educa- 
tors, state labor and immigration officials, editors, offi- 

96 



THE WOMAN'S COMMITTEE 

cials of patriotic, civic, and racial organizations, and 
interested private citizens generally, have accepted 
with evidences of an eager readiness for national serv- 
ice. The Honorable John Price Jackson, Pennsylva- 
nia State Commissioner of Labor and Industry, has 
been appointed chairman of the Committee and Harri- 
son H. Wheaton, Specialist in Immigrant Education of 
the Bureau of Education, has been designated chair- 
man of the Executive Committee. Under the direc- 
tion of Mr. Wheaton, a complete plan of activities 
has been outlined and put into execution. 

The forces cooperating in this campaign embrace 
not only educational institutions and organizations of 
every kind, but industrial organizations like the 
Chamber of Commerce of the United States of Amer- 
ica, individual chambers of commerce, manufactur- 
ing, transportation, commercial and financial inter- 
ests of the country, working through organized bodies 
and through individuals; labor unions and labor 
leaders; social service organizations covering every 
field of welfare and philanthropic endeavor as well as 
religious organizations and parochial institutions; 
native patriotic and fraternal societies, and societies 
of foreigners. The news-disseminating agencies, 
such as the daily and periodical press — both English 
and foreign language — and the motion-picture thea- 
ters, have shown patriotic willingness to assist in 
forwarding the campaign. 

Among the great national organizations entering 
into the undertaking may be mentioned the National 
Society of the Sons of the American Revolution, the 
Daughters of the American Revolution, the General 
Federation of Women 's Clubs with its affiliated State 

97 



AMERICAN WOMEN AND THE WORLD WAR 

Federations, the American Association of Foreign 
Language Newspapers, the National Americanization 
Committee, the Young Women's Christian Associa- 
tion, the National Association of Patriotic Instruct- 
ors, the Council of Jewish Women, the American 
Library Association, the Committee for Immigrants 
in America, and the Young Men's Christian Associa- 
tion. 

Americanization of the foreigner has been directed 
almost exclusively toward assimilating the foreign 
man. The foreign woman has hitherto received 
scant consideration. Two points deserve to be noted, 
however, which should force this woman's question 
upon public attention. 

In the so-called suffrage states, the man of the fam- 
ily determines to become a citizen of the United 
States. He complies with the naturalization law by 
learning English and demonstrating his fitness to 
have citizenship conferred upon him. By the same 
judicial fiat which makes the man a citizen, the wife 
automatically becomes a citizen. Thenceforth, she 
stands upon an equality with the American woman, 
and enjoys the same franchise, rights and privileges. 
Yet the foreign woman may be absolutely ignorant 
of English, and totally unfitted for exercising the 
right of suffrage. In these states, therefore, Ameri- 
canization of the foreign woman is a civic and po- 
litical necessity. This argument is only less potent 
in the case of the independent woman wage-earner, 
for she, too, may retain her independence, and be- 
come a naturalized citizen under the same conditions 
as her brother. 

Experience has shown that where the children of 

98 



THE WOMAFS COMMITTEE 

foreign parents acquire the English language and 
the parents remain ignorant thereof, a disintegra- 
tion of the family unit is almost sure to follow. 
Children in their impulsiveness look down upon the 
linguistic limitations of their elders, in some cases 
even ridiculing covertly or openly this disability. 
Parental discipline and control are dissipated, and 
the whole family fabric becomes weakened. Thus 
one of the great conservative forces in the community 
becomes inoperative. Inasmuch as the maternal con- 
trol of the young is or should be dominant, Ameri- 
canization of the foreign woman through language is 
imperative. 

Furthermore, it is well known that the foreign 
home is much more exclusive than the American 
home. Only a woman can effectively break through 
this national reserve. It is important, therefore, 
that American women's organizations consider this 
question seriously, for they can be of invaluable 
assistance in overcoming this ultra conservatism. 
Parent-Teachers' Associations, which have been 
largely promoted by women's organizations, are al- 
ready doing effective work along this line. Califor- 
nia has taken a long stride forward through the 
passage of its ''Home Teacher Act" (1915), legaliz- 
ing the appointment by boards of education of a 
teacher who shall spend her time in the homes. A 
sentence of this act reads thus : 

It shall be the duty of the home teachers to work in 
the homes of the pupils, instructing children and adults 
in matters relating to school attendance and preparation 
therefor; also in sanitation, in the EngHsh language, in 

99 



AMERICAN WOMEN AND THE WORLD WAR 

household duties such as purchase, preparation and use of 
food and clothing, and in the fundamental principles of 
the American system of government and the rights and 
duties of citizenship. 

Knowledge of English is the open sesame by which 
the foreigner comes into contact with our wonderful 
American civilization. It is likewise the way of ap- 
proach for the foreign woman to American acquaint- 
anceship and American friendship. Without this 
the alien woman will be a stranger in a strange land, 
shut off from the enjoyment of the privileges of 
American social life, and compelled to confine her 
social relations to those of her ovni nationality. 

Women's clubs have a marvelous opportunity to 
make their influence effective in Americanizing the 
foreigner. They can join in the '' America First" 
Campaign of the Bureau of Education to induce 
three million non-English-speaking immigrants to 
learn our language and fit themselves for participa- 
tion in American life. By their interest and par- 
ticipation in this movement, they can demonstrate to 
the foreigner that he is welcome in our great na- 
tional family, and that after all there is a human 
side to this extending the welcoming hand of fellow- 
ship, quite apart from the selfish appreciation of his 
worth as an economic asset. They can stimulate 
local school authorities to provide adequate facilities 
for the foreigner to learn English. (This means 
afternoon classes for women as well as evening 
classes for men and women.) They can encourage 
the citizenship reception which goes far toward mak- 
ing both men and women feel that their entrance to 

100 



THE WOMAN^S COMMITTEE 

American citizenship is humanly worth while. They 
can form groups, as has been done by the Women's 
City Club of Chicago in cooperation with the Infant 
Welfare Society, to teach foreign mothers how to 
feed and clothe their children properly, how to pre- 
vent the spread of contagious diseases, and can in- 
struct them as to the legal status of themselves and 
their children under our civic code. They can co- 
operate with the Bureau of Education in the employ- 
ment of women physicians (following the plan in- 
augurated so successfully by the Chicago Board of 
Education in the winter of 1912-13) to work with 
foreign mothers on a general health side, this instruc- 
tion to be given in public school buildings after 
school hours. They can provide nurses for the 
babies while these mothers are at school. They can 
see that *' Block Matrons'' are appointed, as at Erie, 
Pa., who learn to know the foreign families of their 
neighborhood, who stand back of school authorities 
in urging the men and women to learn English, and 
who become neighbors, friends, and veritable mother 
confessors to the foreign women of the block. They 
can organize Americanization committees to study 
the whole problem, and work out other means of local 
application to combat this non-assimilation situation 
which is confronting every community having any 
considerable number of foreign born inhabitants. 

In these and other ways which the collective in- 
genuity of the Women's Club members will readily 
devise, the organized women of this country can play 
an important part in making ours a country with a 
common language, a common purpose, a common set 
of ideals — a unified America. 

101 



AMERICAN WOMEN AND THE WORLD WAR 

The United States Bureau of Education has varied 
facilities for promoting this Americanization work, 
and will gladly put these at the disposal of organiza- 
tions or individuals who are sufficiently interested to 
write for further specific information or suggestions. 
Such correspondence should be addressed to the 
Bureau of Education, Division of Immigrant Educa- 
tion, Washington, D. C. It is the aim of the Divi- 
sion to be of national service in dealing with the 
complex problem of immigration and to cooperate 
with every possible agency in effecting its solution. 

In order that women may appreciate the Ameri- 
canization problem as it applies to women, figures 
have been compiled from the U. S. Census Report for 
1910, which give for each state, certain statistics re- 
lating to the number of women of twenty-one years 
of age and over; (1) total number of white women; 
(2) number of foreign-born white women; (3) num- 
ber of foreign-born white women unable to speak 
English; and (4) number of foreign-born white 
women attending school. 

Comparison of the figures under 3 and 4 will give 
the problem for each State, as far as non-English- 
speaking adult foreign women are concerned. 

For the country as a whole, 1.2% of the non-Eng- 
lish-speaking white women are attending school, or 
were attending school during the period covered by 
the 1910 Census Report. The corresponding figure 
for both sexes is 1.3%, showing that slightly fewer 
women in this category attend school than men. In 
either case, the number of these non-English-speak- 
ing adults in school is insignificant. The problem 
which the ''America First" Campaign is designed to 

102 



THE WOMAN'S COMMITTEE 

attack is, therefore, a problem of adult education for 
both men and women, and it is likely to tax our best 
efforts for its solution. 

Organized women's clubs can bend their energies 
to no other task where the need is so crying or the 
reward of accomplishment so satisfying. 

Dr. Charles Eliot said: ''The United States 
have made a great contribution to civilization in 
demonstrating that the people belonging to a great 
variety of races or nations are, under favorable cir- 
cumstances, fitted for political freedom." 

The Woman's Committee of the Council of Na- 
tional Defense, realizing at once the need of aggres- 
sive effort toward the ''patriotic education" of the 
immigrant population, and especially of immigrant 
women, created a committee on education as one of 
its divisions of work and appointed Mrs. Carrie 
Chapman Catt chairman. In the interest of patri- 
otic education the Woman's Committee planned pub- 
lic mass meetings of women all over the United 
States. These meetings formed the initial part of 
the plan of the Educational Department of the Com- 
mittee of which Mrs. Catt is chairman. Soon after 
her appointment Mrs. Catt stated to the Woman's 
Committee that millions of people in the United 
States did not clearly understand why we were at 
war or the imperative necessity of winning the war 
if future generations were to be protected from the 
menace of an unscrupulous militarism. Mrs. Catt 
said there was evidence on every side of ignorance 
and apathy on the part of the people. Women, she 
said, are the greatest sentiment makers of any com- 
munity. They have time to talk, time to read, and 

103 



AMERICAN WOMEN AND THE WORLD WAR 

time to go to meetings. '* There is no machinery in 
our country now/' said Mrs. Catt, *' which can carry 
a message to the remotest hamlet quite so successfully 
as can the Woman's Committee with its fifty -two 
divisional chairmen, including one for each of the 
forty-eight states and one each for Guam, Alaska, the 
Philippines and the Hawaiian Islands. Each state 
has its county, city and rural community chairman, 
so there is hardly a school district which cannot be 
reached. 

**In a general way the men of our country have 
realized that women have many and large organiza- 
tions, but they have not comprehended how easy it 
has been to unite all these organizations in this tre- 
mendous machinery which has been perfected and 
adjusted with amazing efficiency. There are prob- 
ably one hundred thousand women now officering this 
great woman army, and through them we propose to 
spread to at least twenty millions of women the 
message we get here in the Capital of the nation. 
The first message we want to send to the women now 
is that whether the nation likes it or does not like it 
we are in war, and that whether the sacrifices neces- 
sary to win it are made willingly or unwillingly they 
must be made, or the generation that follows us will 
find itself drawn into a similar maelstrom to that 
which now involves all the chief nations of the world. 
We propose to begin a vast educational movement 
with lantern slides, movies, lectures and literature, 
which will carry to the women of the nation the 
graphic story of the war. When the women under- 
stand, all will be fervently enlisted to push the war 
to victory as rapidly as possible. With the women 

104 



THE WOMAN'S COMMITTEE 

behind it the end will come sooner, and with more 
certainty this war will prove to be the war to end 
wars." 

In the states where the foreign population is large 
women have worked indefatigably and with telling 
effect. 

A Department of Naturalization has been started 
by the Nebraska Division. Nebraska women felt that 
such a Department would do incalculable good, arous- 
ing in women the feeling that there should be no alien 
in America. They are securing zealous workers of 
each nationality represented in the state to interest 
women in naturalization. ** These spread the news 
among the men,*' writes Miss Hrbkova, the Nebraska 
Chairman, "and Nebraska already shows some good 
returns in applications of men for naturalization, for 
it appears that they do not want to be outdone by the 
women in making good their chance at American citi- 
zenship. ' ' 

In several other states, the Woman's Committee is 
either initiating a plan of Americanization, or is al- 
lying itself with work already started. Thus, in 
Maryland, the Division is interesting itself in the 
data gathered by the General Census Board. They 
determine the number of foreigners who attend the 
night school, and from the Court of Common Pleas 
and the U. S. District Court, are finding out the 
number who have taken out first and second papers. 
They are also using the special census lately taken 
in Maryland. Altogether Maryland's job is to win 
about 104,000 foreign born. . 

In Seattle they are cooperating with a Federal 
Association, planning a survey of the county. 

105 



AMERICAN WOMEN AND THE WORLD WAR J|! 

Miss Mary McDowell, head of the University of 
Chicago settlement and chairman of the Committee 
on Foreign Women in Industry in the Council of 
National Defense, has plans to teach English to for- 
eign women who are working in Chicago shops and 
factories. 

The Committee of Women of the Illinois Council 
of National Defense has received requests for infor- 
mation on this subject from other parts of the coun- 
try, and the plan may be adopted in many other 
cities. 

A story from Chicago is to the effect that so many 
foreign women who came to one of the schools to 
learn English brought their babies that the teachers 
in charge had to issue a hurry call for volunteer 
nurses. 

In Michigan remarkable work has been done, and 
in Minnesota also some novel and effective ideas have 
been worked out. 

The National Americanization Committee advises : 

Americanize one Immigrant Woman 

Get one Immigrant to become a Citizen 

Teach one Foreign-Bom Mother English 

Put one Immigrant Family on your Calling List. 



CHAPTER IX 
THE LIBERTY LOAN 

More than 1,000,000 women subscribe in first sale of 
bonds — One-third of all Liberty Bond buyers are 
women — Remarkable campaign of organization and 
education conducted by Woman's Liberty Loan Com- 
mittee, Mrs. McAdoo, Chairman. 

The Liberty Loan, to which it is estimated a mil- 
lion women subscribed in the first sale of bonds, was 
not essentially designed as a woman's activity. As a 
financial measure required for the raising of money 
to pay for the food, clothing, shelter and maintenance 
of American soldiers, sailors and marines, the Loan 
seemed naturally apart from the usual work of 
women in war time; but the quick response of the 
women of the United States to the opportunity to 
subscribe to the first issue associated women with 
the work so speedily after its announcement that the 
President, in order that women should be repre- 
sented in the councils of undertaking, appointed the 
Woman's Liberty Loan Committee. Mrs. McAdoo, 
wife of the Secretary of the Treasury and daughter 
of the President, accepted the chairmanship for the 
Committee, the other members being: Mrs. An- 
toinette Ftmk, Chicago, vice-chairman; Miss Mary 
Synon, executive secretary; Mrs. Carrie Chapman 
Catt; Mrs. George Bass; Mrs. F. L. Higginson; Mrs. 

107 



AMERICAN WOMEN AND THE WORLD WAR 

Frank A. Vanderlip; Mrs. J. C. Miller; Mrs. Kel- 
logg Fairbank; Mrs. Guilford Dudley; Mrs. George 
Thacher Guernsey. 

The Committee found that its work divided itself 
into organization and education. The educational 
campaign, intended to bring home to the women of 
the United States the financial advantages and the 
patriotic duty involved in their purchase of Liberty 
Loan Bonds, occupied the larger part of the atten- 
tion of the members of the committee during the 
first issue. For the following issue of the Loan the 
committee has been perfecting an organization which 
includes hundreds of thousands of women as active 
workers. 

The first work of the Woman's Liberty Loan Com- 
mittee was the task of bringing home to the women 
of the United States the fact that the Liberty Loan 
bond was a good investment, since it was really a 
mortgage upon the resources of the government of 
the United States, paying 3i/^ per cent, interest in 
semi-annual payments and with this income from it 
not subject to taxation. On its very face a Liberty 
bond is the safest investment in the world, backed as 
it is by the assurance of the richest government on 
earth; but since women have not been accustomed to 
investment, a large part of the work of the commit- 
tee was the demonstration to women that investment 
itself is desirable. 

In addition to this, it was necessary to point out 
that any government has but two means of raising 
money for the conduct of a war, namely, bond issues 
or taxation. In an expertly planned and managed 
campaign the Woman's Liberty Loan Committee also 

108 



THE WOMAN'S COMMITTEE 

brought home to the women of America some strik- 
ing facts. It reminded them that if the Government 
should fail to raise money by bond issues, then taxa- 
tion, both direct and indirect, would be necessary to 
a degree that would materially affect every house- 
hold and every individual in the country; that if the 
government of the United States had to raise money 
for the prosecution of this war by taxation, then 
every woman in the country would have to pay taxes 
upon all the luxuries and some of the necessities of 
life — there would probably be taxes on shoes, coffee, 
sugar, tea, hats, gloves, garments, on almost any- 
thing and everything women want and use; and it 
was shown that the money raised thereby, while paid 
by the individual, would never return to her except 
in the general good insured by payment of taxes. 

On the other hand, a Liberty bond, if purchased 
in 1917, would be payable in 1947. Through the 
thirty years of its continuance it would be earning 
interest for the investor at a higher rate than that 
given by savings banks. At any time it would be 
negotiable. The woman who bought one could, if 
she needed the money, take it to a bank anywhere in 
the United States and dispose of it at its market 
value. She could borrow money upon it, for United 
States government bonds have been for years the 
world's best security. In short, the purchase of a 
Liberty bond was practically an insurance for the 
woman who bought it. 

The teaching of these points to the women of the 
United States engrossed the attention of the 
Woman's Committee during the progress of the first 
issue of the Loan. That American women were quick 

109 



AMERICAN WOMEN AND THE WORLD WAR 

to ^asp the double opportunity for patriotic service 
and safe investment was shovni by the fact that, as 
nearly as may be estimated, almost one-third of the 
total number of purchasers of Liberty bonds were 
women. 

Most of these women had never before invested in 
any security. Wherever women had invested previ- 
ously, they literally sprang at the chance of this in- 
vestment. In Los Angeles, California, where thou- 
sands of women of independent means have their 
banking accounts, the ratio of women to men invest- 
ors in the Liberty Loan stood seven to three. Even 
in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, where most of 
the women with money to invest had earned it by 
hard work, every third investor, barring corporations, 
was a woman; and thirty per cent, of the total sub- 
scriptions in Pittsburgh were those made by women. 

The interest taken by the women of the country 
in the Liberty Loan inspired the Woman's Liberty 
Loan Committee to perfect an organization of women 
designed to include practically every woman in the 
United States. Realizing that there was already in 
existence a gigantic machine of woman's war activity 
in the state units of the Woman's Committee of the 
National Council of Defense, the Woman's Liberty 
Loan Committee decided to utilize this organization 
rather than try to build up an organization that 
would only duplicate this machine in membership 
and possibly divide both in effort. For this reason 
the latter committee chose the state as the unit of 
organization and secured from the Woman's Commit- 
tee of the Council of National Defense authority to 
have Liberty Loan state chairmen appointed on the 

110 



THE WOMAN'S COMMITTEE 

executive committee of the state units of the defense 
committee. The practical working out of this ar- 
rangement runs thus: 

The Woman's Liberty Loan Committee chooses 
Mrs. Barrett Wendell its chairman for the common- 
wealth of Massachusetts, forwarding Mrs. Wendell's 
nomination to the Woman's Committee of the Coun- 
cil of National Defense. The latter, approving Mrs. 
Wendell, sends the nomination and approval to the 
Massachusetts unit of its organization. This unit, ac- 
cepting Mrs. Wendell, makes her a member of its 
executive body. Mrs. Wendell then automatically 
becomes the Liberty Loan agent in the executive body, 
having at her command the organization which the 
unit has built for the purpose of uniting the war 
work of women in the state. She also has power to 
inaugurate new bodies for the Liberty Loan in dis- 
tricts where such organization has not been es- 
tablished. In short, she is the director of all women's 
activities for the Loan in her state. 

For every state and territory of the nation there is 
a woman Liberty Loan chairman. These chairmen 
were chosen by the Woman's Liberty Loan Commit- 
tee for their organizing ability, and to them has been 
delegated the work of organizing the women of their 
states or territories. 

Because the Liberty Loan, however, has financial as 
well as organization problems, the Woman's Liberty 
Loan Committee found it advisable to choose, in ad- 
dition to the state chairmen, another group of officers, 
namely, the Federal Reserve Districts chairmen, one 
for each of the twelve Federal Reserve Districts of 
the United States. These women are delegates from 

111 



AMERICAN WOMEN AND THE WORLD WAR 

the Woman's Liberty Loan Committee to the Liberty 
Loan Committees of the Federal Reserve Bank 
Boards of their respective districts. Their work is 
cooperation with the Liberty Loan Committees in all 
matters relating to the participation of women in 
the Loan. They are distributors of publicity from 
the committees at Washington. They are intermedi- 
aries between the Liberty Loan Committees of their 
district and the state chairmen whose states lie in 
their Federal Eeserve districts. Their work is prac- 
tically ambassadorial, whereas the work of the state 
chairmen is largely executive. But, since each Fed- 
eral Reserve district has its peculiar problem, each 
chairman must necessarily become executive in so far 
as the solution of that problem is her vital concern. 

In addition to these officers the Woman's Liberty 
Loan Committee has an Advisory Council, composed 
of the heads of women's organizations of national 
membership. To this belong nearly all the women 
representing national societies and fraternal organi- 
zations. The Woman's Christian Temperance Union, 
the Woman's Benefit Association of the Maccabees, 
the Association of Collegiate Almunae, the Council 
of Jewish Women, the Young Women's Christian As- 
sociation, the Women's Catholic Benevolent Legion, 
the Women's Home Missions Society of the Methodist 
Episcopal Church, the Daughters of the Confederacy, 
the Ladies of the Grand Army of the Republic, the 
International People's Aid Association, the United 
Society of Christian Endeavor, are associations that 
give some idea of the scope and democracy of the 
cause. Mrs. George Dewey was made a member of the 
Council as president of the women's section of the 

112 



THE WOMAN'S COMMITTEE 

Navy League. So was Mrs. James W. Wadsworth, 
president of the National Association Opposed to 
Woman Suffrage. The Council is, in fact, one of the 
greatest representative bodies of women ever united 
for a common cause in this country ; and the magnifi- 
cent work done by its members, both in publicity dur- 
ing the first issue, and in both publicity and organiza- 
tion since the ending of the first issue, has been one of 
the primary causes of the success of the Liberty Loan. 
To facilitate the work of the Federal Reserve district 
and state chairmen, the Woman's Liberty Loan Com- 
mittee has directed all its publicity from Washington, 
leaving its distribution however, except in certain 
groups, to the chairmen. These groups covered in 
the first issue the circularization of the Daughters of 
the American Revolution, who, in answer to the ap- 
peal sent them by Mrs. George Thacher Guernsey, 
their president-general and a member of the Commit- 
tee, subscribed more than $1,500,000 to the Loan in 
the course of four days. The Woman's Committee 
of the Liberty Loan, in addition to its continuous 
newspaper publicity, circularized millions of women 
on farms and in factories, and conducted a campaign 
through the schools of the country that was designed to 
make every child in the United States conversant with 
the primary facts of the Liberty Loan. Besides this, 
the Committee has adopted posters, buttons, dodgers, 
placards and various special ideas intended to pro- 
mote general knowledge of the purposes and benefits 
of the Loan. 

It is not to be understood by the fact that the 
Committee had devised a complete organization that 
there was no room for women workers in its ranks. 

113 



AMERICAN WOMEN AND THE WORLD WAR 

On the contrary, the Liberty Loan is a governmental 
activity open to every person in the United States. 
Every woman in the country could become either a 
purchaser of a Liberty bond or a promoter of its 
purchase. It was not even necessary for her to be 
a citizen. Some of the first purchasers in the earlier 
issues were women not yet citizens, Slovak women who 
declared in formal resolution when their organiza- 
tion bought $50,000 worth of Liberty bonds that no 
one knew better than did they the meaning of the 
word liberty. 

The women of the United States have already 
shown their understanding and appreciation of the 
blessings of American freedom by their subscription 
to the first issues of the Liberty Loan, but in order 
that the world may know that the women of this 
country are standing back of our nation's fight for 
those ideals of government that mean the genuine 
freedom of womanhood, it is right that every woman 
in the land should be either purchaser or worker, or 
both, in the cause of the Liberty Loan. It is the 
American woman's opportunity to prove her grati- 
tude for the security she has enjoyed so long. It is 
her chance to register her belief in a lasting, universal 
peace — for peace will not come until the military ag- 
gression of any one nation is made impossible — ^her 
chance to speed the ending of the war, her chance to 
provide food and shelter and clothing for her sons, 
her chance to do her part for the land that is doing 
its part for her. That is the message of the Liberty 
Loan to American women. 

The Woman's Committee, at the request of the 
Secretary of the Treasury, turned the full power of 

114 



THE WOMAN'S COMMITTEE 

its machinery to help in the sale of Liberty Loan 
Bonds. Every state unit was urgently requested by 
the Woman's Committee to include ''Liberty Loan" 
as one of its departments of work and to push the 
sale of the bonds to the limit of its power. This 
every unit did with enthusiasm, and the result 
amazed, not only the national leaders, but the women 
themselves. 

The Liberty Loan Department is under the chair- 
manship of Mrs. Antoinette Funk. This Department 
of the Woman's Committee collaborated with the 
Woman's Liberty Loan Committee in the distribution 
of 700,000 Liberty Loan primers and handbooks to 
school teachers, 1,500,000 specially prepared letters 
calculated to reach farmers' wives, and with a Speak- 
ers' Bureau, under the direction of Miss Florence 
Ward, of the Department of Agriculture, who as- 
signed 1,600 extension workers as speakers. The De- 
partment also assisted in distributing literature and 
posters and in directing work in schools and among 
groups immediately under their supervision. 

It is too early at this writing to give an approxi- 
mate estimate of the work of American women in 
carrying out the nation's financial program, but it is 
certainly not too early to say that that part is far 
greater and more important than the most far-seeing 
person dreamed it would or could be. 

Mrs. Antoinette Funk, as executive chairman of the 
Liberty Loan Committee, displayed a genius for or- 
ganization and executive that has commanded the re- 
spect of every national official who has had occasion to 
come in contact with her work. Special mention 
should also be made of the excellent voluntary serv- 

115 



AMERICAN WOMEN AND THE WORLD WAR 

ices of Miss Mary Synon, of Chicago, who handled 
the publicity concerning the work of the Woman's 
Liberty Loan Committee, the high quality of which 
made much for the success of the undertaking. 

The Federal Reserve chairmen are: Mrs. F. L. 
Higginson, Boston; Mrs. John Pratt, New York; 
Miss Clara Middleton, Philadelphia; Mrs. Roger G. 
Perkins, Cleveland, Mrs. Egbert Leigh, Richmond; 
Mrs. P. J. McGovern, Atlanta; Miss Grace Dixon, 
Chicago; Miss Florence J. Wade, St. Louis; 
Mrs. C. A. Severance, Minneapolis; Mrs. George W. 
Fuller, Kansas City; Mrs. B. B. Reppert, Dallas; 
Mrs. A. S. Baldwin, San Francisco. The state chair- 
men are : Albama, Mrs. Solon Jacobs ; Arizona, Miss 
Alice N. Birdsall; Arkansas, Mrs. C. H. Brough; 
California, Mrs. E. R. Brainers; Colorado, Mrs. E. S. 
Kassler; Connecticut, Mrs. Morgan B. Bulkeley, vice- 
chairman, Mrs. R. M. Bissell; Delaware, Mrs. W. R. 
Orr ; Georgia, Mrs. W. R. Leaken ; Idaho, Mrs. Teresa 
M. Graham; Illinois, Mrs. Howard T. Willson; In- 
diana, Mrs. Fred H. McCulloch; Iowa, Mrs. Wilbur 
W. Marsh ; Kentucky, Mrs. Donald McDonald ; Louisi- 
ana, Mrs. Lawrence Williams; Maine, Mrs. John F. 
Hill; Maryland, Mrs. Robert Garrett; Massachusetts, 
Mrs. Barrett Wendell; Michigan, Mrs. Delphine D. 
Ashbaugh; Minnesota, Mrs. Francis Chamberlain; 
Montana, Mrs. W. W. McDowell; Missouri, Mrs. 
Philip Moore; Nebraska, Mrs. A. G. Peterson: Ne- 
vada, Mrs. Samuel W. Belford ; New Hampshire, Mrs. 
Wm. H. Schofield ; New Jersey, Mrs. H. O. Wittpen ; 
New Mexico, Mrs. J. J. Shuler; New York, ]\Irs. 
Courtland Barnes; North Carolina, Mrs. R. J. 
Reynolds; North Dakota, Miss Minnie Nielson; Ore- 

116 



THE WOMAN'S COMMITTEE 

gon, Mrs. Sarah Evans; Ohio, Mrs. Frank J. Mul- 
hauser; Pennsylvania, Mrs. J. 0. Miller; Rhode 
Island, Mrs. Livingstone Beekman (Honorary), Mrs. 
Walter A. Peck (Active) ; Tennessee, Mrs. Guiford 
Dudley; Texas, Mrs. D. E. Waggoner; Utah, Mrs. 
W. Mont Ferry; Vermont, Mrs. E. C. Smith; Wash- 
ington, Mrs. Overton Ellis ; Wisconsin, Mrs. John W. 
Mariner; Wyoming, Mrs. T. F. Taliaferro. 



CHAPTER X 

WOMEN IN INDUSTRY 

More than 2,000,000 of America's Women who work 
in factories deeply affected by war — Women's Labor 
Organizations work to maintain standards — National 
League for Woman's Service renders valuable aid — 
Value of this work recognized by the Secretary of 
Labor — United States establishes employment agencies 
throughout the country — The Gompers Committee. 

It is evident to the least observant that Labor's 
share in winning the war is second in importance 
only to that of the military arm of the Government. 
It is also evident that grave dangers will attend the 
shifting of women into men's places and the read- 
justment that must be brought about by the with- 
drawal of millions of men from American industry. 
It is undoubtedly in the industrial and economic field 
that the war will mark the most far-reaching trans- 
formation in the condition of women. Even in times 
of peace women were working in two hundred and 
ninety-five trades and occupations out of the three 
hundred and three listed in the census, and we can 
well imagine what further development of woman's 
work and woman's power is to be brought about in 
the near future. Of the millions of industrial work- 
ers in America more than 2,000,000 are women, and 
no sooner had war been declared in Europe than the 

118 



THE WOMAN'S COMMITTEE 

equilibrium of industrial affairs touching women be- 
gan to be upset in this country. The real problem, 
however, began to be acute after the first draft, and 
various agencies have been at work to remedy, in so 
far as they could, the situation. 

The most important phase of the question of 
women in industry is that concerning standards, and 
very early in the war the National Women's Trade 
Union League of America, in annual session at Kan- 
sas City, Missouri, adopted certain standards of in- 
dustry for government contracts. The report of the 
Committee on Woman's Work in War Time adopted 
by the delegates to this convention said: 

For the first time in our history, trade union women 
representing their respective trades have been called by 
the Government into active service in order to meet intelli- 
gently the difficulties and complications which will arise in 
the industrial field as the result of our entrance into the 
war. It is therefore incumbent upon us to consider the 
best way of protecting the great mass of women workers 
from the exploitation that may follow. 

Trade union women are serving on committees appointed 
by the Council of National Defense and on state and city 
defense committees, thereby in an official capacity repre- 
senting the interests of the women workers and voicing for 
the first time the needs of this most exploited group in the 
country. 

We therefore recommend to the proper government com- 
mittees the following outline of standards to be established 
for government contracts, and the following recommenda- 
tions to protect working women in the necessary industrial 
adjustments that are now in process of development. 



119 



AMERICAN WOMEN AND THE WORLD WAR 

Standards of Industry for Government Contracts 

1. Adult labor. 

2. Wages — 

a. The highest prevailing rate of wages in the 
industry which the contract affects. 

b. Equal pay for equal work. 

c. Those trades where there is no wage standard 
whatsoever shall be placed in the hands of an adjust- 
ment committee. 

d. That all wages be adjusted from time to time 
to meet the increased cost of living — by this com- 
mittee — and that other wage questions be submitted 
to it. 

3. The eight-hour day. 

4. One day rest in seven. 

5. Prohibition of night work for women. 

6. Standards of sanitation and fire protection. 

7. Protection against over-fatigue and industrial dis- 
eases. 

8. Prohibition of tenement house labor. 

9. Exemption from the call into industry of women 
having small children needing their care. 

10. Exemption from the call into industry of women two 
months before and after child birth. 

Regarding the shifting of women into men's places 
the report continues: ''In the adjustment that must 
follow the call into service of men, women will in- 
evitably take their places. There will be grave dan- 
ger that they will be paid less wages than men. We 
therefore recommend: 

First — that the Government shall require in its contracts 
equal pay for equal work. 

120 



THE WOMAN'S COMMITTEE 

Second — ^that technical and trade training be opened to 
women in all schools and colleges on equal terms with 
men. 

Third — that in the establishment of local committees of 
mediation and conciliation of industrial disputes, trade 
union women as well as men be appointed. 

Employment Agencies and Transportation 

It is of the utmost importance at this time that the fed- 
eral, state and city employment agencies shall be perfected 
and that a Woman's Department in each of these agencies 
shall be created. The closest cooperation should exist be- 
tween these agencies in order that there be the speediest 
adjustment in the labor market and that women shall find 
opportunities for work easily without unnecessary delay be- 
tween jobs. 

We urge the Government through the Department of 
Labor not to send women into any industry unless there be 
guaranteed the standards of labor set forth in this report. 
Where women are sent away from their own localities 
proper housing should be assured them and transportation 
and wages for the days spent in travel should be furnished. 

In order to carry out these provisions so that women 
workers shall be protected and shall not lose their faith in 
the integrity of the Government, a Transportation Com- 
mittee should be established connected with the Government 
Agencies. The duty of this Committee shall be to direct 
the workers to decent housing accommodations and to see 
that the places of employment to which they have been 
assigned are open on their arrival and conform to the above 
standards. (Such agencies as the Young Women's Chris- 
tian Association and the Travelers' Aid under a Govern- 
ment Committee could be effectively used for this purpose.) 



121 



AMERICAN WOMEN AND THE WORLD WAR 

Cooperation with the Secretary of Labor 

The Committee expresses its confidence in the Secretary 
of Labor who is in charge of this work and recommends 
that the National Women's Trade Union League offer him 
our united support and cooperation in order that we may 
be of service in helping him meet the difficult problems in 
connection with the work. 

To assist him to establish these industrial standards and 
make them obligatory upon these employers accepting 
Government Contracts whether through the Department 
of Labor or through the Department of War, the Com- 
mittee recommends the adoption of the following resolu- 
tion: 

(Resolution No. 32, introduced by the Chicago Delega- 
tion : ) 

Federal Inspection 

Whereas, We know that our Government wishes to give 
its war contracts to those employers maintaining the highest 
industrial standards, and 

Whereas, As workers we find that some of these con- 
tracts have been given to known exploiters of women and 
children, and 

Whereas, The Department of Labor at Washington has 
no power to make inspections of industrial plants, and the 
Government therefore is in no position to control such em- 
ployers, although a corresponding power of control is vested 
in the Children's Bureau, and the Public Health Service, 
therefore, be it 

Resolved, That the delegates to the National Women's 
Trade Union League in Sixth Biennial Convention as- 
sembled, ask Congress to enact such legislation as will give 
full power to the Department of Labor to make inspection 
of all industrial plants handling Government Contracts, 
and be it further 

Resolved, That because of the great increase of women 

122 



THE WOMAN'S COMMITTEE 

workers, women as well as men inspectors be employed. 
While the committee heartily endorses Resolution No. 14 
introduced by Delegate Mary Anderson of Chicago, a mem- 
ber of the Boot and Shoe Workers' Union, we further 
recommend that this suggestion be adopted for all Govern- 
ment Contracts which affect those industries in which trade 
organization exist. 

Government Shoe Contracts ^ 

Whereas, The policy pursued by the War Department 
in letting orders for army shoes has been and is to place 
such contracts with non-union shoe manufacturers whose 
employees do not receive sufficient compensation for their 
labor, and 

Whereas, The United States Government has inaugu- 
rated a policy in the placing of army shoe contracts to 
which we must enter an emphatic protest and which is in 
contrast to the Allied Governments who have placed their 
orders with union firms, therefore, be it 

Resolved, That we, the delegates to the Sixth Biennial 
Convention of the National Women's Trade Union League, 
respectfully request the Army and Navy Department to 
place all future Government orders with union shoe manu- 
facturers, where self-government prevails in the workshop 
which is a necessary development of our free institutions 
and where the Government will be guaranteed no inter- 
ruption on this work so that orders will be promptly 
filled. 

The committee further recommends the adoption of Reso- 
lution No. 17 introduced by the Resolutions Committee 
which is as follows: 

1 We are informed by the War Department that on May 29 
(too late for such information to be made public at the time 
of the passing of the above resolution) contracts for army 
shoes were awarded to twenty-one firms, eight of whom are 
operating union factories. 

123 



AJVIERICAN WOMEN AND THE WORLD WAR 

Women's Work in War and National Labor 
Standards 

Whereas, It has been conclusively proved that long 
hours and the breakdown of legal standards for the pro- 
tection of working women and children mean a breakdown 
in health and an increase in industrial accidents, and 

Whereas, There is danger that in the present excitement 
the public may lose sight of the importance of maintaining 
the educational and labor standards which have slowly 
grown up in these states and which are an essential bul- 
wark of democracy, and 

Whereas, England's experience imder like circumstances 
has proved on the one hand that increasing the hours of 
labor actually lessens the output, and, on the other, that 
the crippling of the schools was accompanied by an increase 
of thirty -four per cent, in child delinquency, while the small 
money saving made in this way in two years was only 
enough to support the armies for fifteen hours, there- 
fore, be it 

Resolved, That the National Women^s Trade Union 
League in convention assembled protest emphatically 
against any attempt to lower educational standards or to 
weaken the laws safeguarding the workers, especially 
women and children, and that we do all within our power 
to maintain and help establish as well as guard every other 
law enacted for the protection of women and children in in- 
dustry; that we secure equal pay for equal work where 
women are forced into the positions left vacant by men, and 
be it further 

Resolved, That while there is no law protecting mothers 
with young children from entering industry that we make 
every possible effort to prevent mothers with young chil- 
dren from being called into industry except as a last resort. 

The Committee further recommends the adoption of Reso- 
lution No. 18 introduced by the Resolutions Committee 

124 



THE WOMAN'S COMMITTEE 

urging international standards in industry, which is as 
follows : 

Whereas, The right to live through work is not to be 
denied; and 

Whereas, The efforts of individual nations to raise the 
standard of life for their own workers are perpetually 
hindered through the international trade competition of 
countries with lower standards, it has now become neces- 
sary to meet this situation through international agreement ; 
and 

Whereas, During the war the working class has in every 
nation contributed its all; therefore, be it 

Resolved, That we, the delegates to the Sixth Biennial 
Convention of the National Women's Trade Union League 
urge that there be included in the treaty of peace to be 
signed at the conclusion of war, labor clauses, to take effect 
within a definite time, prescribing standards covering con- 
ditions of work, the hours of work, and the wages paid, 
so that the workers may be insured such elementary rights 
as the eight-hour day, one day rest in seven, no child labor, 
the abolition of night work for women, a living wage in 
proportion to the cost of living in each country, and equal 
pay for equal work. 

The Committee recommends to the National Women's 
Trade Union League in order to meet effectively the prob- 
lems that will arise that the National Executive Board 
work in conjunction with our members on the various 
Committees of the Council of National Defense and other 
authorized bodies to obtain the best results possible for the 
women workers in the country. 

We recommend that a Committee be appointed to call 
upon the President of the United States, Secretary of War, 
Secretary of Labor, and the appropriate committees of the 
Council for National Defense and lay before them the 
recommendations here outlined. 

Finally, the Committee appeals to all working women to 

125 



AMERICAN WOMEN AND THE WOKLD WAR 

maintain their hard-won standards of hours, wages and 
conditions through these times that try men's souls and that 
in the words of the president of the National Women's 
Trade Union League, "Let us never forget that organiza- 
tion is the heart of it all. In ordinary times industrial 
freedom is the most important freedom, as industrial democ- 
racy is the most important democracy in an industrial age. 
Now that democracy is declared on all sides to be worth 
dying for, surely it is worth living by. Industrial freedom 
requires the trade-agreement workshop, and the trade- 
agreement workshop requires the organization of the work- 
ers. Just as the individual nation cannot alone protect its 
liberty and life in this world war, so the individual worker 
cannot alone protect her liberty and life in the industrial 
struggle. 

This report was signed by the Committee on 
Woman's Work in War Time, which consists of the 
following : 

Mary Dreier, New York, Chairman; Agnes Nestor, 
First Vice-President, International Glove Workers^ 
Union of America, Chicago; Mary Anderson, Inter- 
national Executive Board Member of the Boot and 
Shoe Workers' Union, Chicago; Melinda Scott, Vice- 
President, United Hat Trimmers of New York ; Emma 
Steghagen, Boot and Shoe Workers' Union, Chicago; 
Elisabeth Christman, See'y-Treas., International 
Glove Workers' Union of America, Chicago; Eliza- 
beth Maloney, Fourth Vice-President, Hotel and Res- 
taurant Employees' International Alliance, Chicago; 
Olive Sullivan, Office Employees' Association, Chi- 
cago ; Rose Schneidermann, Cloth Hat and Cap Mak- 
ers' Union, New York; Hilda Svenson, Bookkeepers, 
Stenographers and Accountants' Association, New 

126 



THE WOMAN'S COMMITTEE 

York; Nellie Lithgow, Hosiery Workers' Union Phila- 
delphia, Pa.; Julia O'Connor, Telephone Operators' 
Union, Boston, Mass. ; Katherine Lindsay, Office Em- 
ployees' Association, Baltimore, Md. ; Alice Scott, 
Hat Trimmers' Union of Newark, N. J.; Angelina 
Berte, United Garment Workers' Union, St. Louis, 
Mo.; Clare Armstrong, Young Women's Christian 
Association, Topeka, Kan. ; Louisa Mittelstadt, Beer 
Bottlers' Union, Kansas City, Mo.; Rhoda McCulloch, 
National Young Women's Christian Association, New 
York; Mabel Gillespie, Stenographers' Union, Bos- 
ton ; Emma Pischel, Meat, Food and Sanitary Science 
Inspector, Chicago; Dora Lipschitz, Waist, Silk Suit 
and Dressmakers' Union, Philadelphia, Pa.; Mary 
Haney, United Garment Workers' Union, Chicago; 
Fannia Cohn, Vice-President of the National Ladies' 
Garment W^orkers' Union, New York; Mrs. Walter 
McNabb ]\Iiller, National American Woman Suffrage 
Association, New York; Mme. Geubel de la Ruelle, 
Department of Labor, Paris, France, 

This resolution was unanimously adopted by the 
Delegates to the Sixth Biennial Convention of the 
National Women's Trade Union League of America, 
June 4-9, 1917. 

At the conclusion of the Convention which adopted 
this report a special committee went to Washington 
and presented it in person to President Wilson, the 
Secretary of War and the Secretary of Labor, after 
which Secretary Baker wrote to Miss Mary Dreier, 
New York, chairman of the Committee, as fol- 
lows : 

May I thank you for the report of the Committee on 
Women's Work in War Time, and express to the League 

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AMERICAN WOMEN AND THE WORLD WAR 

through you my hearty sympathy with its spirit and inten- 
tion. You can rest assured that no attack upon our hard- 
won industrial standards will receive any comfort from me. 
Experience during the war has demonstrated beyond possi- 
bility of argument that you cannot cheat nature, and that 
those who have been insisting so many years upon the main- 
tenance of a national minimum are more than vindicated. 
As Secretary of War I am more than ever concerned, for 
on the protection of basic standards of life our nation 
power ultimately depends. 

Mrs. Raymond Robins, president of the National 
Women's Trade Union League of America, said: 
''Trade and technical training of women is of the 
utmost importance at this time. England recognized 
this by providing such training to her women after 
the first months of the war. We must demand that 
in the new development of public school education 
girls be given the same chance as their brothers for 
training in knowledge and mastery of their respective 
trades. It has been the object of the National 
Women's Trade Union League to work out plans for 
a program that comprehends the scope and purpose 
of industrial democracy. 

*' America calls for that training which will give to 
her working women not only the capacity to adapt 
themselves to the changes that are going on around 
us, but to the power to shape and direct them. 

"To prepare such leadership for working women in 
America, the National Women's Trade Union League, 
in the face of what seemed insuperable difficulties, 
four years ago undertook the establishment of a train- 
ing school for active workers in the labor movement. 
Already this school has justified our work and faith 

128 



THE WOMAN'S COMMITTEE 

and the generous support of far-sighted women, who 
made its foundation possible. Literally millions of 
women are looking to our organization for help and 
leadership in the struggle for self-government in their 
daily toil. America at war opens a new field for its 
cooperation. 

**We are endeavoring to unite in maintaining and 
extending our hard won standards in industry, and 
are alert to resist the efforts of ignorance and greed 
to capitalize a national emergency into dollars coined 
from the exploited labors of the poor. This war has 
proved that child labor, the twelve-hour day and 
seven-day week are economic waste and national be- 
trayal. Exploitation of labor is treason to the state. 
We women of the Trade Union League are demand- 
ing a real economic preparedness. In my opinion an 
eight-hour day, a living wage, one day 's rest in seven, 
and adult labor, should be a condition in every con- 
tract made for Government supplies. 

** Under the Woman's Committee of the Council of 
National Defense, there are being organized in every 
state committees for the protection of women and 
children in industry. Here practical knowledge of 
industrial life and trained service for dealing with 
industrial conditions is of highest importance for 
the national welfare. 

**Not only are unorganized woman workers in vast 
numbers used as underbidders in the labor market 
for lowering industrial standards, but they are re- 
lated to those groups in the industrial centers of our 
country that are least Americanized and most alien 
to our institutions and ideals. These groups cannot 
be led from the outside. From within the fellowship 

129 



AMERICAN WOMEN AND THE WORLD WAR 

of their daily life and labor must their salvation 
come." 

Mrs. Robins' interest in the American women in 
industry began many years ago when, as a trained 
nurse in New York, her observations of conditions 
under which women labored led her to endeavor to 
procure more favorable legislation upon the subject. 
She was early convinced that working women must 
have the aid of organization through trade unions. 
In order to gain the fullest possible knowledge of the 
real problems of women industrial workers, Mrs. 
Robins and her husband went in 1905 to live on the 
top floor of a tenement house in Chicago. In this 
section of West Olive Street where she lives, there 
are twenty-three nationalities in a population of 70,- 
000 people living within a square mile. 

In England the problem not only of maintaining 
standards already achieved, but of elevating and im- 
proving the conditions of women workers during the 
war, was met by the influence of men's trade unions. 
In this country also the protection of the standards 
of labor will depend upon the effectiveness of the 
labor union; but in this country the women's trade 
unions will play as conspicuous a part as the men's 
unions. The National Women's Trade Union League 
of America was organized in 1903, with a view to 
uniting the women workers of the country, whether 
or not they are already in unions, and those women 
outside the ranks of labor who sympathize with the 
labor movement. The League has state branches in 
various parts of the country and constantly seeks to 
improve the conditions of working women. 

Although closely affiliated with the American Fed- 

130 



THE WOMAN'S COMMITTEE 

eration of Labor, the League is an independent as- 
sociation. Its platform urges the organization of all 
workers into trade unions, equal pay for equal work, 
the eight-hour day, the minimum wage scale, full 
citizenship for women, and all the principles embodied 
in the economic program of the American Federation 
of Labor. 

The Women's International Union Labor League 
was organized in 1899 for the purpose of improving 
labor conditions, and has concentrated its efforts al- 
most entirely on encouraging the use of goods bear- 
ing the union label. The direct influence of this or- 
ganization on the maintenance of high industrial 
standards during the war may not be especially sig- 
nificant, but the encouragement it has already given 
to women to join the various trades unions cannot 
fail to have a favorable effect. 

It is the duty of every American woman interested 
in the maintenance of standards for women in in- 
dustry to uphold the principles set forth by such 
organizations, for it is largely through their efforts 
that industrial legislation has been secured in the 
United States, that wages have risen, that hours of 
labor have decreased, and that general conditions 
have improved within the last quarter of a century. 
It should be a matter of pride to American women 
everywhere that these groups of women have been 
shouldering their industrial burdens with a growing 
intelligence and effectiveness. The war will be a 
strenuous test of the strength of their unions. 

In no instance has the Government failed to recog- 
nize the importance of the problems concerning 
women in industry. The Committee on Labor, of 

131 



AMERICAN WOMEN AND THE WORLD WAR 

which Mr. Samuel Gompers is chairman, forms one 
of the seven divisions of the work of the Advisory 
Commission of the Council of National Defense. 
Through this Committee every effort is being made to 
avoid the unfortunate industrial experiences of Eng- 
land in the first months of war. The chairman and 
many workers on the sub-committees are giving their 
time and abilities freely as a patriotic service to the 
Government. The Committee on Labor, including its 
national committees and sub-committees, has a mem- 
bership of about five hundred. There are eight na- 
tional committees and chairmen, one of which is the 
Committee on Women in Industry, of which Mrs. 
Borden Harriman of Washington, D. C, is chair- 
man. The executive committee consists of: IMrs. 
Borden Harriman, chairman; Miss Pauline Gold- 
mark, secretary; Mrs. George Vanderbilt, treasurer; 
Miss Grace Abbott, Miss Mary Anderson, Mrs. 
Frances C. Axtell, Miss Sophonisba P. Breckinridge, 
Mrs. Sara A. Conboy, Mrs. Y. Everit Macy, Miss 
Mary E. McDowell, Miss Melinda Scott, Miss Florence 
Thome, Miss Mary Van Kleeck. 

There are sub-committees as follows: Location of 
Workers and Conditions of Labor; General Living 
Conditions of Transported Workers and Local Trans- 
portation Facilities; Industrial Standards (a) houi^s 
of labor, (b) weekly day of rest, (c) night work, (d) 
rest periods, (e) protection from overfatigue and in- 
dustrial diseases, (f) sanitation, (g) wages, (h) pro- 
hibition of tenement house trades; Women doing 
Work customarily done by Men, (a) suitability of the 
work, (b) wages; Alien Women in Industry; Colored 
Women. 

132 



THE WOMAN'S COMMITTEE 

The function of this committee is to concern itself 
with the standards, hours, wages and conditions of 
women in industry. State committees of this com- 
mittee have been organized in twenty-four states. 

At the first meeting of the Committee on Women 
in Industry the following resolutions were adopted: 

I. Standard 

Resolved, That we reiterate the statement of the labor 
committee of the Council of National Defense, that in the 
interest of health, output; and peace in industry there 
should be no movement to relax existing labor standards, 
especially in regard to hours of labor and weekly day of 
rest. 

II. Married Women with Young Children 

Resolved, That we view with alarm the increase of em- 
ployment of married women with young children, and be- 
lieve that efforts should be made to stem this movement as 
far as practicable, especially as regards night work, and 
that these women should be the last to enter into industry. 

III. Not Taking Place of Wage Earners 

Since women in their generous impulse to render service 
are offering to enter industry, therefore be it — 

Resolved, That their attention be called to the danger of 
undercutting existing wage standards and of displacing 
workers dependent on their own earnings. 

A United States Employment Service has been es- 
tablished under the Department of Labor as a war 
emergency measure. It should be a matter of pride to 
American women that one of their number, Miss Hilda 
Mulhauzer, of Cleveland, Ohio, has been made assist- 
ant director of this important work. Miss Mulhauzer 

133 



AMERICAN WOMEN AND THE WORLD WAR 

will concern herself especially with the problem of em- 
ployment for women and girls. She was chosen for 
this responsible position because of her wide experi- 
ence and remarkable executive ability. Headquarters 
have been established and officers placed in charge in 
forty-four zones and there are a number of sub- 
branches in various cities and towns. In eight of the 
zones there are (at this writing) divisions for women 
and girls with women acting superintendents. These 
are as follows ; Newark, N. J., No. 9 Franklin Street, 
Margaretta Neale, superintendent ; Baltimore, Md., 
Stewart building, Nannie Irvine, in charge ; Washing- 
ton, D. C, Department of Labor building, Grace Por- 
ter Hopkins, acting superintendent; Indianapolis, 
Ind., 319 Federal Bldg., Morna Hickam, in charge; 
Chicago, 111., 845 South Wabash Avenue, Estelle Bar- 
field, superintendent; Denver, Colo., 355 Federal 
Bldg., Katherine M. Herring, clerk in charge; San 
Francisco, Cal., No. 2 Appraisers' Bldg., Virginia M. 
Spinks, acting superintendent ; Los Angeles, Cal., Post 
Office Bldg., Elizabeth Blackiston, in charge. 

The Woman's Committee of the Council of Na- 
tional Defense has Women in Industry as one of its 
ten divisions. Miss Agnes Nestor, Chicago, a mem- 
ber of the Committee, and president of the Interna- 
tional Glove Makers' Union, is chairman for this 
division. The Woman's Committee has held itself 
in readiness always to make its machinery available 
in any way suggested by Miss Nestor to help the coun- 
try and its women in the handling of this delicate 
and difficult problem. 

Elsewhere in this book will be found accounts of 
the activities of the National League for Woman's 

134 



THE WOMAN'S COMMITTEE 

Service, the Mayor's Committee of the City of New 
York and other war organizations of women, in the 
interest of the woman in industry problem. 

As has been stated elsewhere, the National League 
for Woman's Service has been specifically engaged 
through a very efficient committee on women in indus- 
try in registering women of the country who desire 
employment under government contract. A number 
of women who afterwards organized the National 
League for Woman's Service asked Miss Grace 
Parker of New York to go to England in the fall of 
1916 and make a survey of how the resources of 
women were being used in England's crisis. Miss 
Parker spent two months in England and upon her 
return made a comprehensive report of her investi- 
gations. Her study was made possible by the co- 
operation of the Duchess of Marlborough; the Mar- 
chioness of Londonderry; Lady Jekyll; Mrs. Lewis 
Harcourt; Mrs. H. J. Tenant; Mrs. Walter Runci- 
man; Miss Pictor-Turberville ; Mrs. Charles W. 
Furse, Commandant-in-Chief V. A. D. ; Miss Lillian 
Barker, Lady Superintendent Royal Arsenal, Plum- 
stead; Miss P. H. Durham, Chief Woman Inspector, 
Board of Trade, and many other English women who 
through their supreme self-sacrifice are helping to 
meet England's great need in this her greatest crisis. 

It was after Miss Parker's return to America, and 
a short time before this country became involved in 
the war, that the National League for Woman's 
Service was formed. Immediately upon a declara- 
tion of a state of war by this country the League an- 
nounced its war emergency program which is being 
carried out all over the country with such telling ef- 

135 



AMERICAN WOMEN AND THE WORLD WAR 

feet. Its particular work concerning woman in in- 
dustry was done in cooperation with the United States 
Department of Labor, the officials of which have pub- 
licly expressed their appreciation of the work that has 
been accomplished by the League. 



CHAPTER XI 
THE RED CROSS 

Woman's Bureau of the Red Cross — Its purposes and 
plans — A general survey — Supply service and Bureau 
of Standards — Elnitting, hospital garments, surgical 
dressings, comfort kits, etc. — Home service — Volunteer 
aids — Work organized and canteens established in 
France — Junior Red Cross — School fund — Red Cross 
school activities — How to organize. 

It would not be possible to tell, even were the space 
available, anything approaching a complete story of 
the work of women for the Red Cross. There is prob- 
ably no community in America in which some women 
are not expressing their patriotism by working for 
the Red Cross. The most that can be attempted here 
is a story of the formation and aims of the Woman's 
Bureau and a general outline of some of the more 
important phases of the work in which women are 
most vitally interested. 

The nursing profession has assumed and carried 
out a noble program of war work, but the great bulk 
of the women of the country are without professional 
training of any sort; and it was primarily to direct 
the energy and eagerness to serve of the millions of 
wives, sisters and mothers of the Army and Navy 
that the Woman's Bureau of the Red Cross was cre- 
ated in July, 1917. 

Miss Florence Marshall, formerly the Director of 

137 



AMERICAN WOMEN AND THE WORLD WAR 

the Manhattan Trade School, the largest technical 
school for girls in America, and a member of the 
Commission on Federal Aid to Vocational Education, 
was made its director. War work of various sorts, 
the making of surgical dressings, knitting garments, 
hospital garments, and in certain parts of the coun- 
try refugee clothing, was being carried on by the Red 
Cross chapters and other organizations, some of them 
indeed having been at work since 1914. But with 
the new calls for our own men, the demand for sup- 
plies leaped hundredfold, and it was apparent that 
the passionate desire of women to be of service would 
result in a wasteful chaos if some general scheme were 
not laid out, and if, at all times, the women of the 
country did not aim to meet the specific demands of 
the French hospitals and the French relief organiza- 
tions. 

Almost the first thing that Miss Marshall under- 
took was to send to France and England two Red 
Cross agents, to make a careful study of the demands 
of the doctors on the spot, and to consult with au- 
thorities on French relief. Miss Elizabeth Hoyt and 
Miss Martha Draper of New York sailed in August, 
1917, and returned with a report which is an incentive 
and an inspiration. 

The immediate problems at home were those of or- 
ganization and the manufacture of supplies known to 
be wanted in great quantities. The chapter and the 
chapter workroom were to be the units of organiza- 
tion. There, questions were to be answered and ma- 
terials given to the individual women, inspection of 
work passed, and gifts received. 

As the scheme for the centralization of adminis- 

138 



THE WOMAN'S COMMITTEE 

tration in the Red Cross as a whole developed, the 
Woman's Bureau, too, divided its work into thirteen 
administrative fields, in America, and a fourteenth 
covering the American Red Cross Chapters in China, 
South America, Alaska and Persia. A divisional di- 
rector of women 's work was appointed for each. The 
business of Miss Marshall's Bureau at National Head- 
quarters became therefore the center where broad 
questions of policy were decided, the clearing house 
for information from abroad as to what was needed, 
and the instrument of standardization. 

Not that National Headquarters felt called upon to 
establish certain rigid standards of work with the 
idea of rejecting everything that did not come up to 
the last seam and the last button-hole. For instance 
in the case of the knitting. The Woman's Bureau 
was able to consult with the authorities from the 
British, Canadian and French Red Cross, with knit- 
ting experts from the commercial mills and the 
women's magazines. It had been advised by cable 
from Major Murphy, head of the Red Cross Commis- 
sion in France, that there would be imperative need 
for outfits of knitted garments, sweaters, socks, muf- 
flers and wristlets, for all men in the trenches, before 
Christmas. French winters are never mild and the 
fuel shortage was already expected. 

The supply service of the Red Cross and the Bu- 
reau of Standards reached a decision that the best 
wool for the purpose and the money, in gray and 
khaki, was four-ply No. 10 's construction. The first 
piece of work of the Woman's Bureau was to issue 
half a million circulars with very simple directions 
for knitting the set of four, a bed sock, an aviator's 

139 



AMERICAN WOMEN AND THE WORLD WAR 

helmet, hot water bottle cover and wash rag. The 
Bureau had designated what things were most needed 
in France, and the simplest way to make them, and 
where to obtain yarn. It is quite possible that muf- 
flers just as good might be an inch longer or an inch 
shorter, purled in stripes or not. The Red Cross 
never declines to receive work that doesn't follow 
precisely the instructions, but the standardized in- 
structions have been designated, and the only way 
for the average woman to be sure that she has come 
as near as possible to giving what is wanted, is to 
follow those instructions. 

Next, Miss Marshall, dealing always with the latest 
news from France, established standards for hospital 
garments, pajamas, bath robes, hospital bed shirts, 
surgeons' and nurses' operating gowns and masks, 
bed socks, undershirts, underdrawers, hot water and 
ice bag covers. Suggestions were made as to the kind 
of warm materials needed in the convalescent robes, 
and arrangements made with the various big pattern 
companies, eight in all, to cut patterns for the author- 
ized Red Cross garments for hospital use; these pat- 
terns are placed on sale at the usual retail channels, 
and at the Red Cross Chapter rooms. 

In most of the divisions, the Supply Service work- 
ing with the Woman's Bureau has put in cutting ma- 
chines and made master patterns so that twenty gar- 
ments can be cut at once, and perfectly. Chapters 
can then purchase the material for garments already 
cut. Cutting machines are also used in preparing the 
gauze for the surgical dressings work. 

The Surgical dressings work has been a tremendous 
task in itself. Under Dr. Hartwell of New York, 

140 



THE WOMAN'S COMMITTEE 

twenty-three standard dressings were passed on and 
the Woman's Bureau was able to issue two circulars, 
one describing each, dressing in detail, with diagram, 
and one for instructors. The problem of organizing 
those competent to give instruction in the making of 
surgical dressings, and using laywomen wherever pos- 
sible in order not to draw too heavily on the nursing 
profession; the process of selecting from those who 
were competent teachers and workmen, those who 
could best be used to instruct other instructors for 
the rapidly increasing number of Red Cross Chap- 
ters, and those who could best be used in the chapter 
workrooms to bend their every energy on increase of 
output — ^these things have been one phase of the 
surgical dressings work. 

As a problem in manufacture, the world has never 
seen the like of what the laywomen of America have 
put their shoulders to. Home work and shop work 
in thousands of chapters and auxiliaries have been 
undertaken. The work is being constantly inter- 
rupted by new workers who do not know what it is all 
about — women who want to knit and have to be 
taught to knit, women who want to sew and have to 
be taught to sew. There have been problems in pack- 
ing and inspection, problems in personal relations, 
problems in sheer education as to why Headquarters 
should be trusted to have put in the surgical dress- 
ings manual, for instance, those dressings which mili- 
tary hospitals most wanted. Every letter that some 
woman in Kentucky or New York received from 
France saying that Doctor X or Y or Z used such 
and such a bandage, opened up fresh controversj'- as 
to what should be made. The average business man, 

141 



AMERICAN WOMEN AND THE WORLD WAR 

set to sink or swim, with the job of delivering hos- 
pital supplies to thousands of hospitals, and depend- 
ent on volunteer labor working part time, would 
have many times preferred to sink. But the women 
of the American Red Cross, from Miss Mabel Board- 
man, the veteran woman worker on the advisory board 
of the Woman's Bureau, down to the little chairman 
of a chapter that had only three members somewhere 
in Nevada, took up the burden with an energy and 
an eagerness that will never be known until the end 
of the war. Millions of dollars' worth of volunteer 
labor will be shown in the story then. 

Figures available now cannot hope to give the pic- 
ture. But a memorandum of six weeks' shippings in 
the fall of 1917 showed that women furnished 3,681,- 
895 surgical dressings; 1,517,076 pieces of hospital 
linen; 424,550 articles of patients' clothing; 301,563 
articles of miscellaneous supplies; '240,621 knitted 
articles. And each six weeks brings in more workers 
than the last, better trained, every day learning more 
competent and less wasteful methods, and gradually 
increasing output. 

Further, the women of the Red Cross chapters un- 
dertook to make a comfort kit for every soldier in 
France and for as many of those in the cantonments 
as possible. The comfort kits, which General Persh- 
ing found so useful to his men when they were on the 
border, are bags made in three styles with pockets, 
containing various sorts of comforts, buttons and sew- 
ing outfits, games, soap, socks, and the like. There 
were hospital bags made so that the hospital patient 
had some cheery little place to keep his treasures and 
private letters. 

142 



THE WOMAN'S COMMITTEE 

These things seem simple. But made in the num- 
bers which are needed, the task has been enormous. 
The women, too, undertook to prepare for every sol- 
dier in the Army and Navy a Red Cross Christmas 
package, to buy and wrap and pack sweets and to- 
bacco and extra holiday comforts, that no man should 
be without some tangible sign that his comfort and 
safety and Christmas cheer were dear to the women 
of his country. 

Other Red Cross tasks have been of infinite variety. 
Many women social workers have been among those 
to organize the Home Service Institutes under the 
Department of Civilian Relief, where six weeks' 
courses will be given, to train women who are the 
Red Cross good neighbors in the best ways of helping 
the wives and children of soldiers on service to keep 
the family unit together, and in good health. 

The Volunteer Aides have in many places formed 
motor corps. Women everywhere have put their au- 
tomobiles at the service of the chapters for errands, 
to convey organizers into the country districts to 
teach, to move bundles and to serve local military 
hospitals as ambulances. Refreshment corps have es- 
tablished canteens in some of the cities along the gen- 
eral lines of transportation, so that soldiers en route 
to the camps, cantonments, and to transports should 
have hot drinks and sandwiches, and a chance to mail 
letters as they passed through. Women in Washing- 
ton, for instance, have been on service from six in 
the morning until late at night, with their soup 
kitchen, steaming with broth or coffee. No train has 
ever come too early or been too late to find them on 
duty. Women have volunteered for clerical work, 

143 



AMERICAN WOMEN AND THE WORLD WAR 

for library work; they have operated model jam 
kitchens, under supervision, and made thousands of 
little individual jelly treats for use in hospital wards 
abroad. 

To promote the close cooperation of American 
women in England and France, the American Red 
Cross formed the Woman's War Relief Corps in 
France. Major Grayson M. P. Murphy, Director of 
the Red Cross Commission to France, authorized the 
new organization, under the direction of Mrs. William 
P. Sharp, wife of the American Ambassador, in order 
to mobilize the useful American women already in 
France, or who might come hereafter. The new or- 
ganization closely coordinates the work of the women 
of the American Colony in London, under Mrs. 
Whitelaw Reid, and the various American women's 
enterprises in Paris. The W^ar Relief Corps will keep 
closely in touch with Miss Florence M. Marshall, Di- 
rector of the Woman's Bureau of the Red Cross, 
with Headquarters in Washington, and with her rep- 
resentatives abroad. 

The work of the new organization is divided into 
fourteen corps divisions. It is managed by an execu- 
tive board: Mrs. Robert Woods Bliss, chairman; 
Mrs. Ralph Preston, Mrs. Edward Tuck, Mrs. George 
Ford, Mrs. Charles Scott ; Madame Waddington. The 
corps division heads are as follows. Blind, Canteens, 
Diet Kitchens, Equipment, General Information and 
Reclamation Bureau; Hospital Auxiliary Service, 
Nurses (Auxiliary) ; Nurses (Trained) ; Propaganda 
and Records; Refugees (Adults, Children) ; Registra- 
tion; Social Service; Surgical Dressings; Workrooms 
and Ouvroirs. 

144 



THE WOMAN'S COMMITTEE 

The funds of the new organization come from three 
sources; donations received, but not solicited by the 
Woman's War Relief Corps; registration dues; and 
Red Cross moneys granted on the approval of budgets 
submitted to the Red Cross Commission in France. 
Among its activities the organization has a housing 
committee which makes a survey of desirable ac- 
commodations in French pensions, as well as hotels 
at suitable rates for wage earners. All American 
women workers coming from home will be met at 
Bordeaux, and their transportation to Paris facili- 
tated. 

Extending the work already begun by the French 
Red Cross, the American Red Cross is establishing 
a long line of canteens near the firing line and at the 
great railroad transfers for the soldiers coming home 
from the trenches on their short leave, and returning 
to them again. It will not be long until there will 
be one of these canteens for every corps of the Army, 
and later for the American Army. 

When the first of those established by our own Red 
Cross was opened, among the two thousand and more 
who passed through that day were a large number of 
our American engineers, and later a troop of Chasseurs 
who had been instructing our own troops. The inci- 
dent was like a prophecy of the days when thousands 
of our men too, will be pouring through these refresh- 
ment stations, warmed, cleansed, well-fed and rested. 
Sleeping quarters, shower baths, disinfecting rooms 
for clothes, good food and games are provided. 
Smaller, portable canteens will send hot drinks in the 
winter up to the men in the front line trenches. 

Over a hundred American women have sailed for 

145 



AMERICAN WOMEN AND THE WORLD WAR 

France as volunteer workers in the canteen service. 
They are prepared for long hours of service and 
dangerous duty, as many of the canteens are well 
within the range of the guns. 

The following message was received from the Paris 
Headquarters of the American Red Cross in France, 
relative to the work of the Red Cross canteen service 
inaugurated to look after the comfort of the troops en 
route to and from the front line of trenches : 

At one of our canteens last week an old poilu, with a 
very tragic face, came up to the directrice of the canteen 
and pulled out three photographs of very fine boys which 
he said were his sons who had enlisted in the same regiment 
and who had all been killed. A month before he had re- 
ceived word from the French authorities that his wife, who 
had been caught in the invaded district, had been shot by 
the Germans. 

He was starting back on his permission with no family 
to whom he could go. The directrice suggested that he had 
his parents to visit, but he answered that both his parents 
were killed by the Germans in 1870. He said to the direc- 
trice : 

"I have had an awfully good time here in your canteen. 
You have all been very kind to me. I have found plenty of 
good food to eat, a nice place to be comfortable and to 
read, and a place to sleep. I think that I will stay here for 
a few days before returning to the front if you do not 
mind."^ And it is there that he will spend his leave. 

These are the men the canteens reach and nearly thirty 
thousand of them a day. 

This is the work that the Red Cross women are do- 
ing — a great volunteer effort of love and patriotism 
— to care for those brave men who are battling with 

146 



THE WOMAN'S COMMITTEE 

this Goliath of vandalism and destruction, to make 
this world free forever to the mass of people to whom 
it belongs. 

No matter how efficient or well-trained our army- 
may become, unless the country back of it can keep 
it supplied, it must fail; and upon the women of 
America falls this heavy burden. But as we have 
no doubts for the success of our fighting forces, 
neither have we any doubt for the success of the 
work of our women, who have responded so wonder- 
fully to every request that has been made of them. 

"We must all combine in uniform and conscientious 
effort — no matter what the personal sacrifice — for the 
honor of the American Red Cross and the United 
States Government. 



CHAPTER Xn 

THE KED CROSS NTJKSE 

Some details of Red Cross work in which women are 
especially interested — Fields of opportunity suggested 
by Woman's Bureau — Nursing service — Emergency 
detachments — Town and country nursing — Instructions 
for knitting, comfort kits, hospital garments, etc. — 
Home Service Institutes in twenty-five cities. 

The Woman's Bureau of the Red Cross does not 
undertake to deal with the professional women in the 
nursing field, as this is under the Bureau of Nursing, 
but it is reaching out to the non-professional or lay- 
women of the country, who, though not specifically 
trained for a particular line of work, are capable of 
rendering valuable service in time of war when every 
resource must be utilized. 

The Woman's Bureau suggests the following as 
some of the fields of opportunity open to the lay- 
women for effective service: 

(1) The giving of a united and unqualified service to the 
Red Cross. Every woman in the country should be an en- 
rolled Red Cross member. It is becoming increasingly im- 
portant that the great work of war relief should be con- 
trolled in such a way as to reduce to a minimum both the 
waste of effort and material, and the women of the country 
have an opportunity as never before to sink individual opin- 
ions and work shoulder to shoulder to make the war a suc- 
cess. 

148 



THE WOMAN'S COMMITTEE 

(2) The production of all kinds of supplies, such as : 

a. — Surgical Dressings. The need for these is so great 
that the Red Cross is sending surgical dressings workers to 
Paris, and yet the Red Cross representatives in Paris say 
that this would not be necessary if the women in America 
only realized how much more effectively they could work in 
this country, where they are not handicapped by shortage 
of food, coal, etc. 

b. — Hospital Garments and Other Hospital Supplies. 
The emphasis here should be placed on making such articles 
as are requested by the Red Cross in order to avoid the 
waste now existent in making huge quantities of articles 
which "somebody says are wanted," but no one knows just 
why or where. 

c. — Knitted Garments for soldiers both at home and 
abroad. With the possibility of a serious wool shortage, it 
is important that it be used only for such garments as are 
urgently needed and requested by the Red Cross. 

d. — Comfort kits for soldiers in the cantonments, in the 
hospitals and in the trenches. 

e. — Christmas packets for the men in the cantonments, in 
the hospitals and in the trenches. 

(3) The cooperation with local Red Cross Chapters for 
such activities as: 

a. — Assisting in all forms of civilian relief. 

b. — Assisting at local canteens. 

c. — Providing comforts for sick and convalescent soldiers. 

d. — Dispensing cheer and comfort to soldiers' depend- 
ents. 

e. — Tendering for use in chapter activities use of automo- 
biles, either with personal service or hired chauffeurs. 

(4) The volunteering of service at own expense for serv- 
ice in the war zone for various forms of work to be done 
under orders. Demand is made from time to time for a 
limited number for foreign service to assist in certain spec- 
ified lines, such as: 

149 



AMERICAN WOMEN AND THE WORLD WAR 

Canteen service. 

Surgical dressings. 

Social service. 

Stenographers. 

Bookkeepers. 

Translators. 

Interpreters. 

(5) Providing money, equipment, etc., for workers who 
are qualified for service abroad but who cannot defray 
their own expenses. 

These are some of the essential services in which 
the lay women can help. To be of the maximum of 
assistance to themselves, to the men on the firing line 
and in camps and to the Red Cross, the untrained 
woman should seek required training. The Ameri- 
can Red Cross through, its vast machinery of Divi- 
sions and Chapters offers channels through which 
training in most lines may be secured and in all of 
those directly bearing on war relief. The successful 
laywoman is the one who can 

1. Take orders. 

2. Be cooperative — work with as weU as for the Red 
Cross. 

3. Regard her service to the country as the enlisted man 
does his oath of allegiance. 

4. Exercise sound judgment and have breadth of vision. 

5. Regard service as her keynote. 

Miss Florence Marshall, Director of the Woman's 
Bureau, says: ''This world calamity gives to the 
Red Cross an opportunity to give expression to the 
best and most characteristic side of American life, 
and to do it on a scale called for by the immensity 

150 



THE WOMAN'S COMMITTEE / 

of the sorrow and distress of mankind, and the Red 
Cross seeks the aid of the women of the nation in the 
gigantic task. The Red Cross knows the women are 
equal to the emergency/' 

Emergency detachments of the Nursing Service 
have been found necessary because of war. The body 
of enrolled Red Cross nurses constitutes the reserve 
for the Army and Navy Nurse Corps. The purpose 
of the formation of emergency detachments is to make 
available all over the country groups of Red Cross 
nurses organized for instant call to active service. 
The organization of emergency detachments is or- 
dinarily effected by Red Cross nursing committees 
throughout the United States. The usual strength of 
an emergency detachment is nine or ten members 
but a smaller number may be authorized. 

Members of emergency detachments (1) must be 
enrolled Red Cross nurses or eligible and willing to 
enroll; (2) must not be over forty nor less than 
twenty- three years of age (in very exceptional cases 
some latitude may be allowed beyond the set limits 
upon application to the Director of the Bureau of 
Nursing Service at Washington, stating the circum- 
stances) ; (3) must pass a physical examination and 
file certificate of examination upon the form fur- 
nished by the Red Cross. These certificates must be 
sent to Washington through the local committee or 
the organizing nurse of the detachment — additional 
physical examinations may be required from time to 
time; (4) must file a certificate of immunity upon 
a form also furnished by the Red Cross showing that 
the applicant has been vaccinated for smallpox and 
inoculated for typhoid and para-typhoid; those who 

151 



AMERICAN WOMEN AND THE WORLD WAR 

have had typhoid fever or complete immunity treat- 
ment for the same need not take the treatment unless 
especially requested to do so. 

Enrolled Red Cross nurses receive no compensation 
except when assigned to active duty. When called 
into active service with the Army and Navy Nurse 
Corps they will receive the pay provided by law for 
said Corps, namely, $50 a month in the United 
States and $60 a month elsewhere, plus maintenance 
and traveling expenses. Chief nurses may receive ad- 
ditional salary. 

The following is an extract from instructions re- 
ceived from the Office of the Surgeon-General of the 
Army. A similar ruling has been made by the Navy 
Department. ** Reserve nurses assigned to active 
service during war will be expected to serve as long 
as they may be needed. A nurse who desires relief 
from active service may apply therefor by letter to 
the Surgeon-General, through the proper channels, 
stating her reasons in full. If these reasons are suf- 
ficient in the judgment of the Surgeon-General her 
request may be granted. Return transportation will 
not be authorized to nurses who have served less than 
one year, unless the need for their services ceases to 
exist, or to those who are discharged for misconduct. 
A nurse who is found to be unsuited for the service, 
physically, professionally or temperamentally, will 
be furnished transportation to her home for relief 
from active service, without regard to length of 
service.'* 

Special circular ARC 702 concerning equipment, 
which includes specifications for uniform, will be 
supplied to each nurse before assignment to active 

152 



THE WOMAN^S COMMITTEE 

duty. A reflation outdoor uniform has also been 
adopted. 

Red Cross nurses definitely assigned to war serv- 
ice become thereby part of the military establishment 
of the United States. Although they remain Red 
Cross nurses their papers are transferred to the Army 
or the Navy Department, as the case may be, which 
thereupon assumes jurisdiction and issues orders and 
instructions covering assignments to duty and details 
of transportation. 

It is highly important that organizing committees 
should at all times maintain their detachments at 
maximum strength and have reasonable assurance 
that each member is available for duty. Under no 
circumstances, however, should nurses give up posi- 
tions or buy equipment except on direct orders from 
Washington. Vacancies caused by illness or any 
other reason should be filled immediately and all re- 
quired papers for the substituted members should be 
sent at once to Washington. 

The refusal of a nurse to serve in time of war for 
any reason other than illness, should be investigated 
and such refusal without justifiable cause should be 
reported promptly to the National Committee. 

When the organizing nurse of a detachment is 
asked to submit names and addresses of nurses avail- 
able for duty, it is imperative before such are sent 
that she communicate with each individual nurse to 
ascertain if she is ready for service. At the same 
time she should determine the correct address to 
which the assignment for duty, oath of allegiance, 
and transportation may be sent. The nurse should 
remain at the address given until these orders are 

153 



AMERICAN WOMEN AND THE WORLD WAR 

received. If this is not done it results in great con- 
fusion in the War Department and is a reflection 
upon the efficiency of the Red Cross Nursing Service. 
It is desirable, when possible, that nurses assemble at 
a central place and proceed together to their ap- 
pointed destination. Under such circumstances, the 
orders can be mailed to the organizing nurse. If this 
is not possible, the orders may be issued to each nurse 
at the address given. 

A phase of Red Cross work that should interest 
many women, especially those in small towns and 
rural districts, is the Town and Country Nursing 
Service. This department grew out of a realization 
of the need for a national organization of specially 
prepared nurses for public health work in small towns 
and rural districts, and was established in November, 
1912. The Town and Country Service does not oper- 
ate in towns or cities of over twenty-five thousand in- 
habitants. Red Cross public health nurses are em- 
ployed by boards of health, boards of education, 
county boards of supervisors, industrial companies, 
anti-tuberculosis associations, women's clubs, and by 
various other groups. A fee is usually charged by 
the local nursing organization where nursing care is 
given, although patients who cannot afford to pay for 
such help are not denied it on that account. 

There probably never was a time when the question 
of health and conservation of life was more vital to 
the nation than now. Instruction in a community in 
the proper feeding and care of infants and older 
children and in hygiene for the school child, in con- 
servation of food supplies and in the making of san- 
itary homes, will go far towards the prevention of 

154 



THE WOMAN'S COMMITTEE 

disease and of needless suffering and death among 
those who must carry the unusual burdens resulting 
from a state of war. Public health nursing may well 
be termed the first line of home defense. 

The Bureau of Town and Country Nursing Service 
is one of three bureaus of the Red Cross Nursing 
Service, the other two being the Bureau of Nursing 
Service and the Bureau of Instruction. The latter 
is in charge of classes in home nursing and home die- 
tetics. The Bureau of Nursing Service controls the 
nursing service (including public health nursing) for 
war and disaster and operates through the Depart- 
ment of Military Relief. 

The Red Cross realizes the importance of sending 
only the best prepared nurses to the rural districts 
where the lone worker carries a heavy responsibility, 
and great care is accordingly exercised in the assign- 
ment of public health nurses to duty. Those desiring 
further information on this subject should ask their 
nearest Red Cross Chapter, their district chairman 
or the National American Red Cross for circular A. 
R. C. 204, which contains suggestions for the or- 
ganization and administration of public health nurs- 
ing in small communities, and for the guidance of 
chapters and other associations contemplating the 
employment of Red Cross public health nurses. 

A Committee of Dieticians of the American Red 
Cross was appointed in 1916 by the National Com- 
mittee on Nursing Service to pass on the credentials of 
applicants for the dietician service of the American 
Red Cross, not for active service with the society in 
any emergency that may arise, but as instructors in 
the Red Cross course in Home Dietetics. This Com- 

155 



AMERICAN WOMEN AND THE WORLD WAR 

mittee was also made responsible for the establisliment 
of uniform standards for the enrollment of dieticians. 
There are widening opportunities for instructors 
chiefly through the agency of Red Cross Chapters. 
The course of instruction for women, which has been 
provided by the Red Cross and placed under the 
Bureau of Instruction at national headquarters, deals 
with the importance of a well balanced diet for adults, 
children and invalids; the proper selection and com- 
parative nutritive value of food; and the underlying 
principles of dietetics, together with the practical ap- 
plication of this knowledge to buying, cooking and 
serving food. Instructors in this course are subject 
to the regulations of the Red Cross Nursing Service. 
For further information on these regulations dieti- 
cians may confer with the educational committee of 
the nearest Red Cross Chapter. 

Miss Jane A. Delano, chairman National Commit- 
tee on Red Cross Nursing Service, is ex-officio mem- 
ber of the Committee on Red Cross Dietician Service. 
The original committee consisted of: Chairman, 
Miss Emma H. Gunther, Columbia University, New 
York City; Miss Isabel Ely Lord, Pratt Institute, 
Brooklyn, N. T. ; Miss Annie W. Goodrich, Columbia 
University, New York City ; and Miss Elva A. George, 
Red Cross Headquarters, Washington, D. C. An 
enlarged committee was found necessary, which in- 
cludes the following members: Miss Grace E. Mc- 
Cullough, Peter Bent Brigham Hospital, Boston, 
Mass. ; Miss Mary A. Lindsley, Cook County Hospital, 
Chicago, 111. ; Miss Ada Z. Fish, William Penn High 
School, Philadelphia, Pa.; Miss Edna White, Ohio 
State University, Columbus, Ohio; Miss Effie Raitt, 

156 



THE WOMAN'S COMMITTEE 

University of Washington, Seattle, Wash.; Miss 
Emma Smedley, Philadelphia, Pa.; Miss Ruth 
Wheeler, University of Illinois, Urbana, 111.; Miss 
Lenna Cooper, Battle Creek Sanitarium, Battle 
Creek, Mich. ; Miss Catherine J. MacKay, Iowa State 
College, Ames, Iowa; Dr. Agnes F. Morgan, Univer- 
sity of California, Berkeley, Cal. ; Miss Helen M. 
Pope, Carnegie Institute, Pittsburgh, Pa. Other 
members may be added as necessary. 

Comfort kits are always in great demand and the 
Woman's Bureau of the American Red Cross, Wash- 
ington, D. C, has issued a circular Number A. R. C. 
402 which fully explains the proper method of mak- 
ing these comfort kits together with list of articles 
they should contain. All Red Cross Chapters should 
be able to supply this circular. Completed articles 
should be sent, if possible, to the nearest Red Cross 
Chapter. WTien this cannot be done, they should be 
sent directly to the Red Cross Division Supply Serv- 
ice in the nearest of the following cities: Boston, 
New York, Philadelphia, Washington, Atlanta, New 
Orleans, St. Louis, Cleveland, Chicago, Minneapolis, 
Denver, San Francisco, Seattle. 

The Woman's Bureau also issues a circular (A. R. 
C. 400) giving complete instructions for knitting 
sweaters, mufflers, helmets, socks, wristlets, wash 
cloths, bottle covers, etc. Every woman who wishes 
to knit for the Red Cross should have these instruc- 
tions, as they are official. Completed articles should 
be sent, if possible, to the nearest Red Cross Chapter. 
WTien this cannot be done, they should be sent di- 
rectly to the Red Cross Supply Depot, New York 
City. 

157 



AMERICAN WOMEN AND THE WORLD WAR 

The Home Service of the Red Cross under the De- 
partment of Civilian Relief should be familiar to 
every American woman. The absence of the head of 
the family is the absence of one of the most important 
members of the household firm often, indeed, the senior 
partner. In many homes the absence of a son or 
brother who may have been the head of the family 
involves a hardship second only to that of the absence 
of the husband. Any deprivation of advice and sym- 
pathy is a heavy handicap to a household, even in 
times of peace. 

The purpose of the Home Service is not merely to 
offset the loss of income that the absence of the head 
of the family involves, but to make possible the same 
standard of living that during his presence was in 
force. More than this, when the standard of living 
is low, it is the duty and the opportunity of the Home 
Service visitor to raise the standard. 

The President himself has said, ''Battlefield relief 
will be effected through Red Cross agencies operating 
under the supervision of the War Department, but 
civilian relief will present a field of increasing op- 
portunity in which the Red Cross organization is es- 
pecially adapted to serve and I am hopeful that our 
people will realize that there is probably no other 
agency with which they can associate themselves 
which can respond so effectively and so universally to 
allay suffering and relieve distress." 

In July, 1917, the Woman's Bureau sent two rep- 
resentatives to France to study the question of gar- 
ments and other supplies needed for the hospitals and 
refugees. 

These representatives and other women already in 

158 



THE WOMAN'S COMMITTEE 

France were appointed by the Red Cross Commission 
in Paris to act as a special committee for this pur- 
pose and made a partial report on the garments and 
supplies that are immediately needed. 

Anticipating the severe cold of the winter in 
France, this report emphasized the need of warm 
materials, such as outing flannels, heavy bath robing, 
etc., for hospital garments. 

Models for garments have been sent to the 
Woman's Bureau by the committee in Paris. The 
models have been given to the pattern companies, 
which have agreed to issue patterns in strict conform- 
ity with them. These patterns will be the official 
Red Cross patterns, and can be obtained from chap- 
ters, stores, or the pattern companies for ten cents 
each. 

Patterns available and material desired for each 
article are as follows : 

Pyjamas — Material: For winter — Flannel or outing 
flannel, good quality. For summer — Ginghams, 
seersuckers, and similar material. 
Color : Light or dark stripes desirable for Ameri- 
can hospitals; only dark colors for French hos- 
pitals. 

Hospital bed shirts — Material: For winter — Canton 
flannel and twill, good quality. For summer — 
Twill, or good quality bleached or unbleached 
muslin. Bed shirts should be at least 1 yard 
and 4 inches long, finished. 

Hospital bed shirts (taped) — Material: Same as for 
bed shirts. 

Bath robes and convalescent robes — Material: For 

159 



AMERICAN WOMEN AND THE WORLD WAR 

winter — Heavy bath robing. For summer — 
Gray blanketing, either plain or with striped 
borders. 

Bed jackets — Material; Bath robing or other very 
warm soft material. 

Convalescent suits (lined pajamas) — Material: Out- 
ing flannel of dark plain color for outside and 
white for lining. 
Color: Blue, lined with white, with which red tie 
can be worn, especially desirable. Important to 
have convalescent patient conspicuous. 

Bed Socks — Material: Flannel or outing flannel. 

Undershirts — Material : Light weight flannel or flan- 
nelette (white). 

Underdrawers — Material: White outing flannel or 
unbleached muslin. 

Bandaged foot socks — Material: Outing flannel, 
preferably dark; lined with white. 

Operating gowns — Material: Twill, good grade. 

Operating caps — Material: Same as for operating 
gowns. 

Operating leggings — ^Material: Canton flannel or 
flannel. 

Operating masks — ^Material: Hospital gauze or 
cheese cloth of a good quality. 

Ice-bag covers — Material: Hospital gauze or cheese 
cloth of a good quality. 

Hot water bag covers — Material: Outing flannel. 

The patterns for the garments are all issued in two 
sizes, medium and large. For American hospitals 
two medium-sized garments should be made to every 
one of large size. For French hospitals, no large 

160 



THE WOMAN'S COMMITTEE 

sizes are needed. Where no special mention is made, 
the same garments and other articles are wanted by 
both American and French hospitals. 

Materials, including emblems which are to be used 
on the garments when the patterns call for them, can 
be purchased by the chapters from the Division Sup- 
ply Depots. 

The special points emphasized in the report of the 
committee are: 1. Convalescent robes should be 
warm; heavy bath robing is preferred. 2. Pajamas 
should be made of flannel or good outing flannel for 
winter use. 3. Pajamas for the French hospitals 
should be made in dark colors, as Fi^enchmen wear 
them only when about the hospitals and out-of-doors. 
Those for American hospitals may be made in light 
colors. 4. Convalescent suits (lined pajamas) are 
needed, as the men wear them in place of other suits 
in both American and French hospitals. They should 
be made of bright colored materials that the convales- 
cent patient may be conspicuous. 5. Both pajamas 
and lined pajamas are preferred with a turn-over 
collar with which a tie may be worn. 6. Nightin- 
gales are not desirable for either American or French 
hospitals. Bed jackets are used in place of them and 
should be made of warm material. 7. Operating leg- 
gings are desirable made of flannel of heavy Canton 
flannel for winter use. 8. Heavy, warm machine- 
made sweaters with long sleeves are needed by men 
in the tuberculosis hospitals; no particular color is 
mentioned. 9. Carpet slippers, or Romeos, or any 
good soft slipper with leather soles that can be worn 
about the wards and in the hospital grounds are 
needed. 10. There is an endless demand for socks — 

161 



AMERICAN WOMEN AND THE WORLD WAR 

Red Cross model (for Red Crops model of socks, see 
A. R. C. 400) made with heavy yarn and large needles 
(at least as large as No. 10 steel) are desirable, but 
other good models will be acceptable. 

The report of the committee on the need for hos- 
pital linen and supplies calls for the following articles 
for which no patterns are given: 

1. Sheets (both bleached and unbleached) at least 
64 inches wide and 102 inches long. These may be 
wider or longer as desired. 

2. Pillow slips of bleached or unbleached muslin 
for French hospitals should be 28 inches wide and 30 
inches long and should have three pairs of tie tapes 
stitched on the inside of the hem to hold the pillow 
in. For American hospitals they should be about 36 
inches long by 21 inches wide when finished. 

3. Plain towels and bath towels. There is a great 
demand for towels of all sorts. 

4. "Wash cloths, either bath toweling or closely knit- 
ted ones. 

5. Handkerchiefs, colored preferred; white accept- 
able. 

6. Comfort pillows, all sizes and shapes, filled with 
any good soft material. 

7. Bright colored bags, unfilled, for the men to use 
in the hospitals for their small personal belongings. 
The gayer the better. 

8. Mattress covers need not be supplied for Ameri- 
can hospitals. For French hospitals they should be 
made of ticking with French seams. One end should 
be left open for stuffing. Measurements, 6 feet 4 
inches long by 2 feet 6 inches wide and 5 inches thick, 

9. Bed spreads. Colored cotton or chintz, 7 feet 

162 



THE WOMAN'S COMMITTEE 

long by 5 feet wide. These should be packed in lots 
of 50 or 100 of the same material. 

10. Old linen, any size, in good condition is wanted. 

Garments which will probably be needed in largest 
quantities are: pajamas and hospital bed shirts. 

Those needed in the second largest quantities : con- 
valescent suits, (lined pajamas) ; underdrawers, 
undershirts, taped hospital bed shirts; bath robes; 
bed socks; bed jackets. 

Those needed in smaller quantities: operating 
caps; operating masks; operating gowns; operating 
leggings; bandaged foot socks. 

All other supplies, towels, sheets, pillow cases, etc., 
are needed continuously. 

A representative of the Woman's Bureau will re- 
main permanently in France to study the demands 
for all kinds of garments and supplies, in order to 
keep chapters in touch with the latest needs. 

Boxes containing garments and hospital supplies 
should not exceed 3x2x2 feet in size. They should 
be made of five-eighths inch tongue and grooved 
boards, strongly joined at the corners, and should be 
lined with heavy water-proof paper, which must ex- 
tend over the top of the contents after the box is 
filled. When possible each box should be filled with 
only one kind of garments or supplies. Garments or 
supplies designed for American or French hospitals 
should be packed in separate boxes, and so marked on 
the outside of the box. 

Each box of garments should contain the water- 
proof paper wrapping, a typewritten inventory of its 
contents following the name and address of the ship- 
per. Boxes should be marked on top ''American Red 

163 



AMERICAN WOMEN AND THE WORLD WAR 

Cross, Divison Supply Depot," with the address to 
which the box is to be sent. The name and address of 
the shipper, the serial number of the box, and a state- 
ment (stenciled on the wood) of the contents of the 
box should also be given. A red cross four and one- 
half inches high and wide, should be painted on each 
end of the box. 

Express companies will accept gifts to the Red 
Cross for shipment at two-thirds their regular rate, 
when prepaid and addressed as above. 

Chapters should ship to their Division Supply 
Depot in one of the following cities : Boston, Atlanta, 
Chicago, Seattle, New York, New Orleans, Minne- 
apolis, Philadelphia, St. Louis, Denver, Washington, 
Cleveland, San Francisco. 

An invoice or notice of shipment, giving the serial 
number of the box or boxes sent, and duplicate copies 
of their inventories, should be mailed by all shippers 
to the Chapter or Division Supply Depot to which 
the shipment is being forwarded. 

For the purpose of more efficient operation, the 
American Red Cross has decided to divide the United 
States into Thirteen Divisions, each of which will be a 
separate and complete operating unit of the Red 
Cross, under the supervision of the Division Manager. 

Each Division Manager will look to National Head- 
quarters at Washington for determination of ques- 
tions of policy and for suggestions that will increase 
the efficiency and productivity of the chapters in his 
division. 

All chapters will deal directly with the division 
organizations, and the head of each chapter will be 
responsible to the Division Manager in each case. 

164 



THE WOMAN'S COMMITTEE 

The National organization will have contact with the 
chapters only through the various division offices. 

By such decentralization, National Headquarters 
at Washington will be enabled to give closer study 
and attention to large matters of policy, and to the 
fullest possible extension and development of the 
American Red Cross. 

The divisions and directors are as follows: At- 
lantic, Miss Ellen L. Adee, 1 Madison Avenue, New 
York, N. Y.; Central Gulf, Mrs. E. E. Moberley, P. 0. 
Bldg., New Orleans ; Lake, Mrs. H. L. Sanf ord, 1034 
Garfield Bldg., Cleveland, Ohio ; Mountain, Mr. Henry 
Swan (acting), 14th and Welton Sts., Denver; New 
England, Miss Lavinia H. Newell, 755 Boylston St., 
Boston, Mass. ; Northern, Mrs. F. L. Fridley, 28 S. 8th 
St., Minneapolis, Minn.; Northwestern, Mrs. Lucy C. 
Hilton, White Building, Seattle, Wash. ; Pacific, Mrs. 
A. L. McLeish, 942 Market St., San Francisco ; Penn- 
sylvania, Mrs. J. Willis Martin, 1601 Walnut St., 
Philadelphia, Pa. ; Potomac, Mrs. F. L. Chapman, 930 
14th St., Washington, D. C. ; Southern, Mrs. John W. 
Grant, 424 Healy Bldg., Atlanta, Ga. ; Southwestern, 
Mrs. Edmund F. Brown, 1617 Railway Exchange, St. 
Louis. Mo. 

Red Cross Home Service Institutes have been estab- 
lished as follows : 

1. Atlanta — Director, Miss Edith Thomson, 705 

Gould Building. 
Supervisor, Miss Helen Muse. 
Affiliated with the Methodist Training 

School. 

2. Baltimore — Director, Miss Theo. Jacobs, 16 St. Paul 

St. 

165 



AMERICAN WOMEN AND THE WORLD WAR 



3. Boston 



4. Chicago 



5. Cincinnati 



6. Cleveland 



7. Columbia 
S. C. 



8. Columbus 



9. Dallas 



Supervisor, Miss Mary C. Goodwillie. 
In cooperation with Johns Hopkins 
University and Goucher College. 
— Director, Miss Katherine McMahon, 755 
Boylston St. 
Supervisor, Mrs. Alice Higgins Loth- 

rop. 
Afi&liated with the Boston School for 
Social workers. 
— Director, Miss Sophonisba P. Breckin- 
ridge, 2559 Michigan Ave. 
Supervisor, Miss Elizabeth S. Dixon. 
Affiliated with the Chicago School of 
Civics and Philanthropy. 
— Director, Professor S. G. Lowrie, Uni- 
versity of Cincinnati. 
Affiliated with University of Cincinnati. 
— Director, Mr. James F. Jackson, 2182 
East 9th St. 
Supervisor, Miss Helen W. Hanchette. 
Affiliated with Western Reserve Uni- 
versity. 
— Director, Miss Margaret Laing, 1211 
Gervais St. 
Assistant Director, Miss Helen Kohn. 
Affiliated with University of South 
Carolina. 
— Director, Professor J. E. Hagerty, Ohio 
State University. 
Supervisor, Mr. Stockton Raymond. 
Affiliated with Ohio State University. 
— Director, Dr. Ivan Lee Holt, Southern 
Methodist University. 
Supervisor, Miss Flora Say lor. 
Affiliated with Southern Methodist Uni- 
versity. 
166 



THE WOMAN'S COMMITTEE 

10. Denver — Director, Prof. Loran D. Osbom, 

Mountain Division Office, Red Cross, 
14th & Wilton Sts. 

Supervisor, Miss Gertrude Vaile. 

Affiliated with the University of Colo- 
rado. 

11. Indianapolis — Director, Prof. J. J. Pettijohn, 1016 

Merchants Bank Bldg. 
Supervisor, Mr. Eugene Foster. 
Affiliated with the University of Indi- 

12. Milwaukee — Director, Professor John John L. Gil- 

len, Madison, Wisconsin. 

Supervisor, Miss Nell Alexander. 

Affiliated with the University of Wis- 
consin. 

13. Minneapolis — Director, Prof. A. J. Todd, University 

and St. Paul of Minnesota. 

Supervisor, Minneapolis, Miss Caroline 
Bedford, 25 Old Chamber of Com- 
merce. 

Supervisor, St. Paul, Miss Kathleen E. 
Gunckel, 104 Wilder Bldg. 

Affiliated with the University of Minne- 
sota. 

14. New Orleans — Director, Miss Eleanor McMain, 1202 

Annunciation Street. 
Supervisor, Mr. Julius Goldman. 
Affiliated with Tulane University. 

15. New York — Director, Mr. Porter R. Lee, 105 East 

City 22nd St. 

Supervisors, Mrs. John M. Glenn, 30 
East 36th St.; Mrs. Janet Anderson, 
185 Montague St., Brooklyn. 
Affiliated with the New York School of 
Philanthropy. 
167 



AMERICAN WOMEN AND THE WORLD WAR 

16. Philadelphia — Director, Mr. Bernard J. Newman, 425 

S. 15th St. 
Supervisor, Miss Elizabeth Wood. 
Aj0Bliated with the Pennsylvania School 

for Social Service. 

17. Pittsburgh — Director, Prof. Francis Tyson, Uni- 

versity of Pittsburgh. 

Supervisor, Miss Eleanor Hanson. 

Affiliated with the University of Pitts- 
burgh. 

18. Portland, Ore. — Director, Mr. Paul H. Douglas, Reed 

College. 
Supervisor, Mr. A. R. Gephart. 
Affiliated with Reed College. 

19. Poughkeepsie — Affiliated with Vassar College. 

20. Richmond —Director, Dr. H. H. Hibbs, Jr., 1112 

Capitol St. 
Supervisor, Miss Leomis Logan. 
Affiliated with the Richmond School of 

Social Economy. 

21. San Francisco — Director, Dr. Jessica Peixotto, Univer- 

sity of California. 
Supervisor, Miss Lucy Stebbins. 
Affiliated with University of California. 

22. St. Louis —Director, Dr. George B. Mangold, 2221 

Locust St. 
Supervisor, Miss William Wilder. 
Affiliated with the Missouri School of 

Social Economy. 

23. Seattle —Director, Prof. William F. Ogbum, 

University of Washington. 

Supervisor, Miss Virginia McMechen. 

Affiliated with the University of Wash- 
ington. 

24. Springfield, — Director, Dr. J. G. Stevens, Urbana, 

lU. 111. 

168 



THE WOMAN'S COMMITTEE 

Supervisor, Miss Margaret Bergen, 
Springfield, 111. 

Affiliated with the University of Illinois. 
25. Washington —Director, Mr. Walter S. Ufford, 923 H 

St., N. W. 

Supervisor, Mrs. Walter S. Ufford. 

Affiliated with George Washington Uni- 
versity. 



CHAPTER XIII 

JUNIOR RED CROSS 

The school fund — Red Cross school activities — Steps in 
organization — Infant Welfare Unit for France financed 
by American women — Children's Refuge — Children's 
Bureau undertakes great work in France. 

A NEW class of membership has been authorized by 
the American Red Cross known as Junior Red Cross 
Membership. It is open to all boys and girls of 
school age in attendance on public, private or pa- 
rochial schools, or attending other organized educa- 
tional centers, under direction acceptable to the 
Chapter School Committee, but only to such student 
body as a whole. In special cases, a Red Cross Chap- 
ter may accept the recommendation of the Chapter 
School Committee that one or more classes or grades 
of a school be permitted to organize as a School Aux- 
iliary pending a more complete organization. 

Junior Membership through the School Auxiliary 
is granted when, for this purpose, a sum equal to 
twenty-five cents for each pupil has been contributed 
to the Chapter School Fund, or when the school is 
pledged to prepare Red Cross supplies or engage in 
other Red Cross activities approved and supervised 
by the Chapter School Committee. These require- 
ments should be based on the ability of the individual 
school to make a real contribution to Red Cross 

170 



THE WOMAN'S COMMITTEE 

agencies, or to enter with loyalty and serious pur- 
pose into Red Cross school activities, as suggested 
by national headquarters. 

This payment or pledge having been made and 
accepted, on application of the principal, the treas- 
urer of the Chapter School Fund issues a certificate 
which entitles the school to be known as a School 
Auxiliary of the local chapter of the American Red 
Cross, and to display a special Red Cross banner bear- 
ing the name of the school and with space for record- 
ing succeeding years of membership. The pupils in 
the school now become Junior Members of the Red 
Cross and are entitled to wear the Red Cross member- 
ship button. The school principal, or his deputy, 
becomes chairman, and the teachers, members or 
officers of the School Auxiliary. Junior Membership 
is granted for the period of the school year, and re- 
newals of membership should, therefore, be made as 
early in the school year as possible. School Auxil- 
iaries may, for convenience, elect to organize through 
a branch or auxiliary of the Chapter, subject to gen- 
eral regulations. 

The school fund is maintained chiefly for the 
purchase of materials to be made up into surgical and 
other supplies, by the school for the Red Cross. In 
instances where more money has been contributed 
than is necessary for these purposes, the money may 
be given for other uses of the Red Cross by vote of 
the School Committee of the Chapter. 

The school fund is composed of Junior Member- 
ship dues and other contributions from any source. 
No part of it is diverted for Chapter use or for gen- 
eral expenses for the Red Cross. The treasurer of 

171 



AMERICAN WOMEN AND THE WORLD WAR 



11 



the School Fund acts under the instructions of the 
School Committee and reports annually to the Chap- 
ter; no further accounting is required. A School 
Auxiliary may make request of the School Committee 
for permission to draw upon the fund to the extent 
of its contribution, for its own Red Cross expenses, 
and the Committee will instruct the treasurer to grant 
this request. 

The work of boys and girls for the Red Cross will 
vary widely in different localities. The training of 
mind and hand which must precede effective con- 
certed action for community relief and betterment is 
the goal of the Red Cross, no less than the care of 
the sick and wounded. Such training involves all the 
duties of citizenship. In general, it should be 
borne in mind that the educational aspect of the work 
for children is to be emphasized. It is suggested 
that in the early stage or organization, special atten- 
tion be given to teaching the history of the Red Cross, 
its services to the nation and to other nations, and its 
present organization for war service. For this, the 
Red Cross Magazine files are useful. In some centers 
story-tellers, songs and games have been employed to 
aid in this message. Lantern slides and moving pic- 
tures will shortly be ready, and may be secured 
through Red Cross Division Headquarters. 

Courses in first aid, home nursing, and dietetics can 
be given to older pupils. All children should know, 
in an elementary way, the essentials of these subjects. 
They should also be taught how to meet emergencies, 
such as extinguishing a small fire, how to swim, and 
be given other exercises which will develop their 
presence of mind and resourcefulness. It is essential 

172 



THE WOMAN^S COMMITTEE 

that school authorities in all cases should receive pre- 
cise instructions from the Chapter School Committee 
before undertaking to prepare any articles for the 
Red Cross. 

Boys and girls can frequently render service 
occupying but a brief period of the day, which will 
be of great value to the Chapter. This work may be 
done in complete cooperation with the older mem- 
bers. It includes aid in campaigns with posters, can- 
vassing, distribution of circulars, gathering of mag- 
azines and books for soldiers, packing supplies, and 
many other tasks. In addition to these services to the 
Chapter, aid can be rendered the community in the 
safeguarding of health, care of property, regard for 
animals and birds, and in the performance of the like 
duties of every good citizen. 

Under the supervision of Red Cross Directors of 
Home Service, it is probable that Red Cross Junior 
Members will find much to do, in caring for others 
who have at this time special claim upon the assist- 
ance of the nation. This work should be most pru- 
dently carried on and never without full approval of 
the proper officers. 

The following instructions for organizations are 
official : 

To School Authorities: Obtain circulars and in- 
structions from your Red Cross Division Head- 
quarters. 

Obtain the consent of the school principal before 
undertaking to organize any school Red Cross activi- 
ties. Do not use the term ''School Auxiliary" until 
your school has received permission to do so from the 
treasurer of the Chapter School Fund. 

173 



AMERICAN WOMEN AND THE WORLD WAR 

Ask your local Red Cross Chapter to appoint a 
school committee — composed mainly of school au- 
thorities — and a treasurer of the Chapter School 
Fund. 

The Chapter furnishes buttons for Junior Mem- 
bers on application. Banners and other special in- 
signia may be adopted by authorization of the Chap- 
ter School Committee. 

Where request is made to the Division Manager, a 
state committee will be appointed to stimulate and 
aid in organizing School Auxiliaries. 

To Chapters: Consult with school authorities in 
public and private schools before initiating steps of 
organization. 

Apply to your Division Manager for information 
and permission to organize. 

Secure for treasurer of the Chapter School Fund 
an official experienced in school administration. 

Appoint to your Chapter School Committee per- 
sons qualified to arouse enthusiasm for the work and 
having adequate knowledge of local school opportu- 
nities for service. 

General inquiries on methods of organization of 
Red Cross Junior Membership may be addressed to 
the office of the Division Manager. Special cor- 
respondence on matters affecting the national plan 
should be addressed to Dr. H. N. MacCracken, Na- 
tional Director of Junior Membership, American Red 
Cross, Washington, D. C. 

On September 15, 1917, the President issued the 
following proclamation : 

174 



THE WOMAN'S COMMITTEE 

To THE School Children of the United States: 

The President of the United States is also President of 
the American Red Cross. It is from these offices joined in 
one that I write you a word of greeting at this time when so 
many of you are beginning the school year. 

The American Red Cross has just prepared a Junior 
Membership with School Activities in which every pupil in 
the United States can find a chance to serve our country. 
The school is the natural center of your life. Through it 
you can best work in the great cause of freedom to which 
we have all pledged ourselves. 

Our Junior Red Cross will bring to you opportunities of 
service to your community and to other communities all 
over the world and guide your service with high and re- 
ligious ideals. It will teach you how to save in order that 
suffering children elsewhere may have the chance to live. 
It will teach you how to prepare some of the supplies which 
wounded soldiers and homeless families lack. It will send 
to you through the Red Cross Bulletins the thrilling stories 
of relief and rescue. And best of all, more perfectly than 
through any of your other school lessons, you will learn by 
doing those kind things under your teacher's direction, to 
be the future good citizens of this great country which we 
all love. 

And I commend to all school teachers in the country the 
simple plan which the American Red Cross has worked out 
to provide for your cooperation, knowing as I do that 
school children will give their best service under the direct 
guidance and instruction of their teachers. Is not this per- 
haps the chance for which you have been looking to give 
your time and efforts in some measure to meet our national 
needs ? 

(Signed) 

WooDROw Wilson, 
September 15, 1917. President. 

175 



AMERICAN WOMEN AND THE WORLD WAR 

A group of specialists in infant welfare has been 
sent to France by the American Red Cross, and it will 
be a matter of pride to every American woman to 
know that this great undertaking was financed by an 
American woman, Mrs. William Lowell Putnam, of 
Boston. At its head is Dr. William P. Lucas, Pro- 
fessor of Pediatrics in the University of California, 
and orginator of the ''Save a Belgian Baby" move- 
ment. 

Before the war the birth rate and death rate in 
France were so nearly equal that publicists voiced 
their concern over the future of the national life. 
Last year, however, with the death rate probably over 
20 per 1000, not counting deaths of men in military 
service, the birth rate was officially estimated at only 
8 per 1000. In New York State the birth rate is 23 
or 24 per 1000, the death rate about 14 per 1000. 

The total deaths in France in 1916 were about 
1,100,000. Births numbered only 312,000. The net 
loss in population was 788,000 or nearly two per cent, 
of the whole. In Paris, where 48,917 babies were 
born in the year ending August 1, 1914, only 26,179 
were born in the second year of the war, ending 
August 1, 1916. 

''There is a crying need for effective work among 
children,'' was the message that came from Major 
Grayson M. P. Murphy, head of the American Red 
Cross Commission in France. He reported a great 
need for doctors and nurses for work with mothers 
and children, and the Infant Welfare Unit is pre- 
pared to give such immediate relief as it can. 

Dr. Lucas was accompanied by Dr. J. Morris Sle- 
mons, of the Yale Medical School, one of the best 

176 



THE WOMAN^S COMMITTEE 

known of American obstetricians; Dr. Julius Parker 
Sedgwick, physiological chemist, professor at the Uni- 
versity of Minnesota ; Dr. John C. Baldwin, specialist 
in diseases of children; Dr. Clain F. Gelston, Dr. 
Lucas's assistant at the University of California; Dr. 
N. 0. Pearce, another specialist, and the following 
experts in sociology and child welfare work: Mrs. J. 
Morris Slemons, Mrs. William P. Lucas, Miss Eliza- 
beth Ashe, and Miss Rosamond Gilder, daughter of 
the poet. 

A month later Dr. Charles Ulysses Moore, of Port- 
land, Oregon, was sent to France to reenforce the In- 
fant Welfare Unit. With Dr. Moore went a group of 
sixteen nurses who have had special training in chil- 
dren's diseases and social welfare work. These reen- 
forcements were sent in response to a cabled request 
from Major Murphy, under whose direction Dr. Lucas 
is working. In response to urgent cable requests 
from Major Murphy a third detachment of child wel- 
fare doctors and nurses sailed for France a short 
time later. 

Physicians and child specialists included in the 
party were Dr. J. H. Mason Knox, Jr., of Baltimore; 
Dr. John B. Manning, of Seattle ; Dr. Florence Chap- 
man Child, of Philadelphia ; Dr. Edmund J. Labbe, of 
Portland, Ore., professor of Pediatrics at the Uni- 
versity of Oregon; Dr. Ethel Lyon Heard, of Galves- 
ton, Tex.; Dr. Helen H. Woodroffe, of Ocean Park, 
Cal.; Dr. Dorothy Child, of Philadelphia; Dr. 0. H. 
Sellenings, of Columbus, 0.; and Dr. Hugh Heaton, 
of Melstone, Mont. There were also nine or ten Red 
Cross nurses. 

*'The demand for children's specialists," Major 

177 



AMERICAN WOMEN AND THE WORLD WAR 

Murphy cabled, ''far exceeds expectations. The or- 
iginal unit is now serving three different localities to 
meet the urgent demands for help. These calls come 
from the devastated area and elsewhere in France." 

The American specialists made a survey of the sit- 
uation and studied the work already being done by 
the French. They practice without receiving com- 
pensation from patients. The task before the Red 
Cross, which will be carried on by this and succeed- 
ing units, is not only to cooperate with French spe- 
cialists but also to carry on a general educational cam- 
paign among French mothers in the interest of better 
prenatal hygiene and scientific feeding and care of 
the babies. Special efforts will be made to protect 
children from tubercular infection, which is particu- 
larly threatening France today as a result of trench 
warfare. Effort will be made to decrease the present 
death rate among children under two years of age, 
which, with the falling birth rate, threatens rapidly 
to depopulate the country. It is expected that doc- 
tors and nurses will be assigned to service at all the 
points of greatest need in France. They are to be 
stationed in groups of two or more at leading hos- 
pitals from which house to house work and educa- 
tional campaigns can be conducted, both in the cities 
and through the country districts. 

The Red Cross has established a children's refuge 
near Toul where seven hundred and fifty boys and 
girls, from near by villages which have been under 
bombardment, are now being kept safe from gas at- 
tacks under expert medical care, in cooperation with 
the French government. In Belgium the Red Cross, 
together with the Rockefeller Foundation, is prepar- 

178 



THE WOMAN'S COMMITTEE 

ing to care for between five and six thousand 
children. 

The work of the Children's Bureau is described as 
follows : 

''The Children's Bureau in the Department of 
Civil Affairs of the Red Cross Commission to France 
received an appeal from Nesle through Monsieur and 
Madame Amedee Vernes of the French Red Cross for 
aid among the children of their district and the 
group of villages to the north and west. 

''In response, an expert from the Children's Bu- 
reau, a specialist in children's diseases from Johns 
Hopkins Hospital, was sent immediately to investi- 
gate the conditions. He visited the region in com- 
pany with Monsieur Amedee Vernes and found vil- 
lages looted and burned, with all buildings destroyed. 
He found more than one thousand children practi- 
cally with no medical care, all miserably dirty, and 
one-half of whom were infected with skin or eye 
lesions, and many actually ill. 

"The equipment for any medical care was ex- 
tremely meager; one old hospital stripped of all its 
apparatus, one aged civilian doctor left without drugs 
or means of getting them, villages to look after be- 
sides his army duties, and one midwife fairly intel- 
ligent who might help. 'Twas an acute situation. 

"Nesle immediately offered a tuberculosis pavilion, 
now unused, for the Red Cross headquarters, if the 
American Red Cross would help. The doctor's rec- 
ommendations upon his return were immediately ac- 
cepted. 

"The Children's Bureau began work by installing 
a central depot at Nesle with ten beds as a clearing 

179 



AMERICAN WOMEN AND THE WORLD WAR 

house for the district, and by equipping an auto- 
mobile as a traveling dispensary, with shower baths. 
The cars visit the villages on a daily round with one 
good trained nurse and two aides/' 



CHAPTER XIV 
NATIONAL LEAGUE FOR WOMAN'S SERVICE 

America's largest and most remarkable war emergency 
organization — Its various departments and some de- 
tails of its plans — With branches in every state this 
organization has far-reaching influence and is officially 
recognized. 

One of the most remarkable examples of the genius 
of American v^omen for organization is found in the 
National League for Woman's Service, an organiza- 
tion that has been doing practical war work since 
January, 1917 — nearly three months before this coun- 
try declared war against Germany. 

The program of work on which the National 
League for Woman's Service is based was presented 
at the Congress for Constructive Patriotism held in 
Washington January, 25, 26 and 27, 1917, and was 
endorsed by Congress. A woman's session was held 
at which over five hundred women from all parts of 
the United States were present, representing many 
national, state and local organizations. At this ses- 
sion a resolution was passed endorsing the program 
and authorizing the chairman to appoint an organiza- 
tion committee of not less than fifteen members, to be 
national in representation, this committee to proceed 
at once with the plans for an organization to promote 
the program for woman's work in America. Thus, 
the National League for Woman's Service came into 

181 



AMERICAN WOMEN AND THE WORLD WAR 

being in Washington, D. C, on January 27, 1917. 
The organization committee consisted of: chairman, 
Miss Maude Wetmore, Rhode Island; treasurer, Miss 
Anne Morgan, New York ; national commandant, Miss 
Grace Parker, New York; Mrs. Rogers H. Bacon, 
New York; Mrs. Charles F. Edson, California; 
Mrs. Goelet Gallatin, Wyoming; Mrs. F. V. 
Hammar, Missouri; Mrs. E. R. Hewitt, New Jer- 
sey; Mrs. George Hoadley, Ohio; Mrs. George S. 
Isham, Illinois; Mrs. J. Willis Martin, Pennsylvania; 
Miss Marie Obenauer, Pennsylvania ; MCrs. Thomas B. 
Owen, Alabama; Mrs. Lindsay Patterson, North Car- 
olina; Mrs. William W. Sale, Virginia; Mrs. C. A. 
Severance, Minnesota; Mrs. Hugh L. Scott, Washing- 
ton, D. C. ; Mrs. Lewis B. Stillwell, New Jersey ; Mrs. 
William Gumming Story, New York; Mrs. Coffin 
Van Rensselaer, New York; Mrs. Barret Wendell, 
Massachusetts. 

The object of the National League for Woman's 
Service is to coordinate and standardize the work of 
women of America along lines of constructive pa- 
triotism; to develop the resources, to promote the 
efficiency of women in meeting their every-day re- 
sponsibility to home, to state, to nation and to hu- 
manity; to provide organized, trained groups in 
every community prepared to cooperate with the Red 
Cross and other agencies in dealing with any calam- 
ity — ^fire, flood, famine, economic disorder, etc., and 
in time of war, to supplement the work of the Red 
Cross, the Army and Navy, and to deal with the ques- 
tions of ''Woman's Work and Woman's Welfare." 
The slogan of the organization is ''For God, for 
Country, for Home." 

182 



THE WOMAN^S COMMITTEE 

The plan of work, in general outline, as originally 
stated, is to develop a clearing house of information 
regarding women's organizations; second, to coordi- 
nate the work of women 's organizations and to develop 
the resources of women through a standardized, na- 
tionalized, program of activities; third, to recommend 
to the proper governmental agency: (a) a registry of 
the woman power of America; (b) a woman's bureau 
under the Federal Government to deal with woman's 
work and woman's welfare. 

The standardized program of activity for coordi- 
nating the work and developing the resources of the 
women of America is as follows : 

The responsibilties and interests of women are 
divided into thirteen national divisions, as follows: 
Social and Welfare, Home Economics, Agricultural, 
Industrial, Medical and Nursing, Motor Driving, Gen- 
eral Service, Health, Civics, Signalling, Map-reading, 
Wireless and Telegraphy, and Camping. Definite 
work under these thirteen national divisions is de- 
veloped through state and local organizations, the 
working unit being a detachment of not less than 
ten nor over thirty under the direction of a detach- 
ment commander. 

The basis of training for all detachments is stand- 
ardized, physical drill. Under each national division 
definite requirements are outlined. The plan pro- 
vides for annual inspection of detachments and an- 
nual examinations of individuals, on the basis of 
which detachments and members are continued or 
discontinued ; for promotion on a basis of service and 
efficiency; for annual state or district encampments; 
for an organization uniform to be worn on stated 

183 



AMERICAN WOMEN AND THE WORLD WAR 

occasions ; for an organization badge and insignia ; for 
a pledge of allegiance to be signed by all members; 
and that members must be over sixteen years of age 
and American citizens. 

The plan also provides that any already existing 
organization may organize within its own member- 
ship detachments of the National League for Wo- 
man's Service without giving up its work or losing its 
own identity. 

To develop this plan of organization would have 
required at least six months. Five days after the 
National League for Woman's Service came into ex- 
istence, the nation was confronted with a crisis in its 
affairs with Germany and the possibility of an im- 
mediate emergency. It was then that the leaders of 
the National League for Woman's Service displayed 
their real genius for organization and expressed their 
patriotism in the immediate announcement of an 
emergency program which has since been developed 
and which is the working basis for the very complete 
and efficient organizations which the League has in 
nearly every state in the Union. 

The emergency program was developed to provide 
for the immediate organization of the available re- 
sources of women for service, fitness for service being 
determined upon the basis of training and expe- 
rience. 

The first step in the development of the emergency 
plan of organization was the appointment by the Na- 
tional Executive Committee of a temporary state 
chairman in every state. These temporary chairmen 
were asked to appoint temporary state committees, 
consisting of at least one vice-chairman, a secretary, a 

184 



THE WOMAN'S COMMITTEE 

treasurer, and as many other members as might seem 
desirable. The National Executive Committee sug- 
gested that temporary local chairmen be appointed at 
the earliest possible date in every city, town or dis- 
trict throughout the state. Much was left to the dis- 
cretion of the state chairman and the state commit- 
tee in the promotion of the organization in each state. 
So rapidly was this plan developed that within an in- 
credibly short time the national headquarters had re- 
ceived information that there were complete working 
organizations in thirty-nine states while the other 
nine were in process of organization. 

It would be difficult indeed to say which branch 
of the National League for Woman's Service has 
done most efficient work or has made a larger con- 
tribution to the national war program. But undoubt- 
edly the Bureau of Registration and Information, 
which has been maintained since the beginning of the 
war in Washington, has rendered a service to the 
Government and to thousands of women the value of 
which cannot be estimated. 

The first service which this Bureau set out to 
render was concerned with the mobilization of wage- 
earning women to meet the demands for trained 
woman labor in the government establishments and in 
privately owned factories and mills engaged upon 
emergency orders for army and navy supplies. The 
principle and method of the Bureau's procedure was 
first submitted for approval to the Secretary of 
Labor. The plan received his endorsement and the 
work has been conducted in close cooperation with the 
Labor Department's employment offices throughout 
the country. 

185 



AMERICAN WOMEN AND THE WORLD WAR 

The work involved in carrying out the plans for 
this Bureau was tremendous. To do this work the 
Bureau had first to secure from the War and Navy 
Departments, and from other appropriate sources, 
accurate, current and comprehensive information 
concerning : 

(1) What orders the Government was placing 
with private concerns and with its own factories 
and arsenals; (2) which of these orders involved 
woman labor, skilled and unskilled as an impor- 
tant factor; (3) the status of the woman labor 
supply in the establishments filling such orders; (4) 
the factory and mill trained woman labor reserve in 
the vicinity of these establishments which could be 
mobilized under a call for paid but patriotic service 
in case of a shortage in the mills and in the near by 
factories; (5) other near by places from which in- 
dustrial recruits can be secured in case there is a 
shortage of trained woman labor in the immediate 
vicinity of establishments filling Government war 
orders. 

The Bureau was able to get the War and Navy 
contracts as they were let ; the necessary informa- 
tion as to the supply of trained woman labor to com- 
plete these contracts was obtained, and through local 
committees of its scores of cooperating organizations, 
the Bureau worked registering women for service and 
sending them direct to the establishments needing 
help. The value of such a work to the Government, 
to the firms holding government contracts and to the 
women workers must be at once apparent. The Na- 
tional League for Woman's Service has worked intel- 
ligently in many directions, but had it confined its 

186 



THE WOMAN^S COMMITTEE 

efforts to the Registration Bureau alone it would be 
entitled to the highest commendation. 

It was after the League had begun a general regis- 
tration of the woman power of the country that the 
Woman's Committee of the Council of National De- 
fense undertook such a registration, and for the pur- 
pose of avoiding confusion the National League for 
Woman's Service called its registration ''Enroll- 
ment" instead of "Registration." 

The "Follow-Up" system employed by the League 
proved most effective. By this system every volun- 
teer enrolled for service was brought into an organ- 
ization and especially prepared for the service which 
she had volunteered. The keynote of instruction 
sent out from the national headquarters is "Service 
must never be sacrificed to organization; but too 
frequently service is sacrificed because of lack of or- 
ganization." 

The National League for Woman's Service cooper- 
ated in a most interesting demonstration in food con- 
servation in New York City made b}' the Mayor's 
Committee, the Woman's University Club, the Boy 
Scouts and other organizations. All food coming 
into New York City is inspected at the docks. The 
custom has been to condemn a crate of fruit or vege- 
tables if only a small portion of the contents was unfit 
for use, and to throw away the entire crate. Now 
every barrel or crate which is not passed by the in- 
spectors is turned over to the Mayor's Committee. 
The contents are sorted and all that is fit for use is 
either sold or canned at the demonstration kitchen. 

In Schenectady, New York, the League secured the 
use of a small moving-picture theater a part of which 

187 



AMERICAN WOMEN AND THE WORLD WAR 

is equipped with a kitchen where canning and cook- 
ing classes were held and demonstrations and lectures 
given with lantern slide illustrations. In Virginia 
the League pledged 30,000 cans of fruit and vege- 
tables to be delivered for the soldiers by October 1, 
1917. 

A very important feature of the work of the League 
is the social club work for soldiers and sailors in dif- 
ferent parts of the country. A notice regarding the 
club in New York City is posted on all of the trans- 
ports of the Atlantic Fleet. To attend one of the 
social evenings at the New York City club a party of 
sailors who were without means walked from the 
Navy Yard in Brooklyn to the League's Club at 39th 
Street and back again, the round trip being over 
twelve miles. 

The father of one of the boys came with him to the 
club and spent an evening. The following day he 
wrote to the League as follows: *'I want to express 
my sincere appreciation of what you are doing for 
the boys of the army and the navy, and I would be 
glad to have a small part in this work. I enclose my 
check for $100/' 



CHAPTER XV 
PERMAITENT ORGANIZATION 

How the great permanent organizations of women 
turned to war work — General Federation of Women's 
Clubs, Daughters of American Revolution, Colonial 
Dames, United Daughters of Confederacy, Council of 
Jewish Women, Y. W. C. A., Navy League, Congress 
of Mothers, etc. 

The declaration of wav in the United States found 
the women of America thoroughly organized and 
each of the great women's organizations immediately 
offered its services to assist in the prosecution of war. 

The General Federation of Women's Clubs, with a 
membership of approximately 3,000,000, and com- 
plete working organizations in every state in the 
Union, formed one of the largest and strongest of the 
women's war machines, and was one of the first or- 
ganizations to offer its services to the Government. 
The Federation of Women's Clubs had already been 
doing a valuable work in studying the Department 
of Agriculture and other branches of the Government 
as they are of interest to women. The survey made 
by the special committee from the Federation in- 
cluded the following subjects: To what extent will 
the Smith-Lever Bill benefit the women on the farms ? 
Wlio are entitled to its benefits, and what do they 
have to do to secure this aid? What are the objects 

189 



AMERICAN WOMEN AND THE WORLD WAR 

of the Bureau of Markets? How far does Federal 
inspection safe^ard our meat supplies? What does 
the Department of Agriculture do to insure safe 
milk ? Is this work carried on in this Department, or 
by the public health service? What work is done in 
the Office of Home Economics? 

The committee that was sent to Washington to an- 
swer these and questions of like character was com- 
posed of: Mrs. Elizabeth Claypool Earl (Mrs. 
Horace Mann), Harriet C. Towner (Mrs. Benjamin 
W.), Anna L. Corkran, Miss Helen Louise Johnson, 
Chairman. 

The Government Departments represent a vast 
storehouse of practical, scientific, authoritative ma- 
terial along the lines of work represented in the 
General Federation, as defined by Mrs. May Alden 
Ward : ' ' To use our united strength to obtain better 
homes, better schools, better surroundings, better citi- 
zenship, and better laws; to work together for civic 
health and civic righteousness, to preserve our herit- 
age, the forests and the natural beauties of the land, 
to procure for our children an education which fits 
them for life, the training of the hand and the heart, 
as well as the head; to prevent the children not our 
own being deprived of their birthright of natural 
childhood, to obtain right conditions and proper safe- 
guards for the women who toil. ' ' 

The committee reported on the Children's Bureau, 
the Public Health Service, Government Publications 
and the work of the Department of Agriculture in- 
cluding the Office of Information, the States' Rela- 
tions Service, the Department of Home Economics, 
Bureau of Markets, Bureau of Animal Industry, Fed- 

190 



THE WOMAN'S COMMITTEE 

eral Meat Inspection, Bureau of Chemistry and the 
Smith-Lever Bill. 

It is easy to see that having made this survey and 
digested the report of the committee the General Fed- 
eration of Women's Clubs was quite ready to take up 
any duties in connection with the war that the gov- 
ernment might see fit to assign to them. Sometime 
before the organization of the Woman's Committee 
the General Federation, realizing the need of a reg- 
ister of its women, had begun a systematic registra- 
tion among its own members. When the official reg- 
istration was undertaken by the Woman 's Committee, 
as described in a previous chapter, the Federation 
stopped its registration and assisted in that under- 
taken by the Woman's Committee. 

In October, 1917, the Federated Clubs opened a 
Service Office in Washington, to be maintained dur- 
ing the period of the war, and also moved the editorial 
offices of the Federated Clubs Magazine to Washing- 
ton so that the National organization might keep in 
close touch with national affairs at Washington and 
disseminate among its members such information as 
might be helpful to them in their war work. The 
Service Office is in charge of Miss Helen Louise John- 
son and is located in the Maryland Building. 

Another great organization of women that early 
offered its services to the Government was the 
Daughters of the American Revolution with its 3,000 
chapters and 1,000,000 members spread over the 
whole of the United States. In order to carry on its 
war work more efficiently the National Society formed 
a War Relief Service Committee composed of: chair- 
man, Mrs. Matthew T. Scott, Washington, D. C. ; vice- 

191 



AMERICAN WOMEN AND THE WORLD WAR 

chairman, Mrs. Albert S. Burleson, Washington, D. 
C. ; director of publicity, Mrs. William H. Wait, Ann 
Arbor, Michigan; secretary, Mrs. Howard L. Hodg- 
kins, Washington, D. C. ; directors : Mrs. James Ben- 
ton Grant, Denver, Colorado; Mrs. Fred H. H. Cal- 
houn, Clemson College, South Carolina; Mrs. Frank 
D. Ellison, Belmont, Massachusetts; Mrs. Thomas A. 
Edison, Orange, New Jersey; Mrs. James Lowry 
Smith, Amarillo, Texas; Mrs. Frank Wm. Bagnsen, 
Rock Island, Illinois. 

From the very day war was declared the Daugh- 
ters of the American Revolution, through its War Re- 
lief Committee as well as through the individual 
chapters, has done practical war work of various 
kinds. The president-general, Mrs. George Thacher 
Guernsey, has given a great deal of her time to war 
work, and the success of every plan undertaken by the 
organization is largely due to Mrs. Guernsey's well- 
known efficiency and to the cordial and nation-wide 
cooperation she has had from her associates. The 
Daughters of the American Revolution were signally 
successful in selling Liberty Bonds, a branch of war 
work in which they have taken an especial interest. 
Secretary McAdoo appointed Mrs. Guernsey a mem- 
ber of the Woman's Liberty Loan Committee, and she 
has been untiring in her efforts in the interest of the 
sale of Liberty Bonds. 

The plans decided upon by the War Relief Service 
Committee at its meeting on June 21, 1917, comprised 
four branches of usefulness, all of which eliminate 
the danger of misdirected energy and bear the stamp 
of government approval. These are : knitting neces- 
sary garments for sailors on United States vessels 

192 



THE WOMAN^S COMMITTEE 

named for Revolutionary heroes; clipping bureau by 
means of which sailors will be supplied with maga- 
zines and news articles ; preparing jellies to be stored 
for hospitals; the adoption of French orphans. The 
Secretary of the Navy endorsed the making of knitted 
garments for sailors, and commanders of vessels pa- 
trolling the coast have sent an urgent plea for a 
large supply to outfit the sailors during the first win- 
ter of the war. The Navy League published espe- 
cially for the Daughters of the American Revolution 
a pamphlet containing the biography of the Revolu- 
tionary heroes for whom United States destroyers have 
been named, a description of the vessels, and the num- 
ber of the crew manning each vessel. Perhaps the 
most interesting phase of war work undertaken by 
the organization is the adoption of French orphans. 
Thirty-six dollars and fifty cents is the sum required 
to support a child for one year. The names and ad- 
dresses of French orphans may be secured by appli- 
cation to Mrs. Matthew T. Scott, chairman of the 
War Relief Service Committee, Memorial Continen- 
tal Hall, Washington, D. C. 

One service rendered the Government by the 
Daughters of the American Revolution is deserving 
of especial notice. The Council of National Defense 
needed a large tract of land centrally located in 
Washington upon which to erect its temporary head- 
quarters. None was available. Hearing of this situ- 
ation Mrs. Guernsey got in touch with her national 
board immediately and the handsome property ad- 
joining that upon which stands the splendid Memorial 
Continental Hall was offered to the Council of Na- 
tional Defense. The offer was promptly accepted 

193 



AMERICAN WOMEN AND THE WORLD WAR 

and in exactly fifty days the spacious temporary 
building was ready for occupancy. 

Perhaps no national organization of women has 
been privileged to render to the Government in its 
time of greatest need a more beautiful service than 
has the Young Women's Christian Association. As 
soon as the country faced the possibility of an ac- 
tive part in the European war, the National Board 
of the Y. W. C. A. recognized its immense responsibil- 
ity in helping to safeguard moral conditions in the 
neighborhood of training camps and providing for the 
welfare of women in special industries created by the 
war's demands. The organization also received re- 
quests for help in the constructive work the associa- 
tions were undertaking in Russia, France and Eng- 
land. To meet the new situation a War Work Coun- 
cil was formed, which aims to use the resources of the 
Y. W. C. A. in helping especially to meet the needs 
which the war has brought to girls and women and 
which in many cases are very acute. The chairman 
of the War Work Council is Mrs. James S. Cushman, 
the other officers being, vice-chairman, Mrs. John R. 
Mott and Mrs. John Meigs ; treasurer, Mrs. Henry P. 
Davidson; secretary pro tem., Mrs. Howard Morse. 
Others serving as chairmen of committees are Mrs. 
E. R. L. Gould, Mrs. Francis De Lacy Hyde, Mrs. 
Robert Lovett and Mrs. Robert E. Speer. 

The Patriotic League promoted by the Junior War 
Work Council of the Y. W. C. A., is described as 
*'an idea and an ideal." Girls of every race and 
creed are eligible on the signing of the following 
pledge: '*I pledge to express my patriotism: by do- 
ing better than ever before whatever work I have to 

194 



THE WOMAN'S COMMITTEE 

do; by rendering whatever special service I can at 
this time to my community and country; by living 
up to the highest standards of character and honor; 
and by helping others to do the same/' 

The problem of girl workers is one with which the 
Y. W. C. A. is well fitted to wrestle, as they have had 
an industrial department for a number of years. In 
some of the factories, as for example at the clothing 
factory in Charleston, S. C, the women work in shifts 
of ten hours each in buildings that have not been 
equipped for their comfort. This factory is next 
door to the navy yard, and the commandant has 
worked in sympathy with the Y. W. C. A. officers, 
who have sought to provide better housing for the 
women, and have furnished them with a recreation 
house where women may meet their men friends un- 
der proper conditions. 

The cafeteria is an institution which the Y. W. C. 
A. has used and developed in a most useful man- 
ner, and their experience is being applied in war 
work. 

In response to the requests of the commandants 
and the Federal Commission on Training Camp Ac- 
tivities fourteen hostess houses have been established 
and four more are under way. These form a social 
center for relatives who come to visit the men in the 
camp. Sometimes the houses are inside the grounds, 
as at Plattsburg, and sometimes they are outside, ac- 
cording to conditions. A tent was opened for *' hos- 
pitality service'' at Camp Mills, L. I. This not only 
provides for temporary needs, but enables the work- 
ers to study the situation and decide how many 
houses will be needed. 

195 



AMERICAN WOMEN AND THE WORLD WAR 

Some of the smaller houses have been put up at a 
cost of $500; those at the larger cantonments will 
cost from $15,000 to $20,000. The one at Ayer, 
Mass., is about three times the size of the one that 
was used in Plattsburg. In addition to affording a 
meeting place for the men and their families and 
friends, there is a check room, secretary's office, rest 
room for women, small nursery for children, and a 
kitchen and arrangements for serving light refresh- 
ments. 

Some of the camps are so far from the towns that 
women who have come from a distance would be 
greatly inconvenienced if there was no such place to 
give them information, refreshment and help. For 
the camps where the distance is greatest, as in New 
Mexico, it may be found necessary to provide places 
where the women may stay over night. 

Search is being made for suitable persons for the 
foreign work which the Y. W. C. A. is undertaking. 
Two women have already gone to Russia, two others 
are on their way and five others will soon follow. 
The work in Russia is largely an industrial problem. 
Wages are high, but the purchasing power of the 
money is less. Food is scarce and high. Miss 
Clarissa H. Spencer, for the last three years acting 
secretary executive for the Foreign Department of 
the National Board, is a linguist and a woman of 
experience in several foreign countries. With her 
went Miss Elizabeth Boies, a graduate of Smith Col- 
lege, who acted as hostess and adviser to thousands 
of girls in the amusement and refreshment concession 
at the Panama Exposition in San Francisco, WTien 
the American troops were sent to the Mexican border, 

196 



THE WOMAN'S COMMITTEE 

Miss Boies was sent to investigate the work for girls 
in Texas and Arizona. 

In France, Y. "W. C. A. workers have responded to 
the need for help in the housing, long hours and other 
industrial conditions that have come up with the 
war. Mary A. Dingman is carrying to France the 
experience of industrial members in the American 
associations. Visitation of factories, organization of 
clubs and councils have been efficient means for 
American cooperation. Investigation and experi- 
ment will show how the women of France who are 
working in munition factories and other unusual em- 
ployments can better their conditions, and one young 
woman will look after the interests of the nurses near 
each American base hospital. 

As one of the eighteen national temperance organi- 
zations comprising the United Committee on Temper- 
ance Activities in the Army and Navy, of which Miss 
Anna A. Gordon is vice-chairman, the W. C. T. U. 
hsft been assigned the work of providing sixteen 
stereo-motorgraphs, one for each of the army can- 
tonments. This is its share of the $100,000 fund un- 
dertaken by the Committee. Among the slides which 
these machines automatically display are cartoons and 
patriotic posters covering different phases of the 
liquor question in its relation to the individual as a 
man and a soldier. The cost of the machines is $500 
each and they are purchased by state W. C. T. U. 
organizations. Two white-ribbon ambulances have 
been presented to the Red Cross, one for service in 
France, the other in Russia. Systematic effort is 
being made to find homes in American families foB 
orphaned French and Belgian children. 

197 



AMERICAN WOMEN AND THE WORLD WAR 

The W. C. T. U., both as a national organization 
and through its individual members, has subscribed 
generously to the Liberty Loan. Its national presi- 
dent, Miss Anna A. Gordon, is a member of the ad- 
visory committee of the Woman's Liberty Loan Com- 
mittee. 

State and local organizations responded enthusi- 
astically to the call of the National W. C. T. U. to 
patriotic service under the following ten divisions: 
Nation-wide Prohibition as a War Measure, Soldiers 
and Sailors, Relief Work, Moral Education, Women 
in Industry, Americanization, Cooperation with the 
United Committee on Temperance Activities in the 
Army and Navy, Community Interest, Finance and 
Membership. 

The 400,000 white-ribboners of the country are co- 
operating through various departments with the war 
emergency plans put out by the government. This 
world war is emphasizing the fact, as other events 
have emphasized it in lesser degree, that the W. C. 
T. U. is equipped for any emergency. Its **do every- 
thing" machinery never stops. The engineers need 
only turn on a little extra power, to set the wheels 
whirling and the pistons pounding with a speed 
and efficiency that is the wonder and envy of or- 
ganizations whose scope is necessarily more limi- 
ted. 

The Committee on Patriotic Service of the Na- 
tional W. C. T. U. consists of the general officers and 
the superintendents of departments. These are: 
president, Anna A. Gordon; vice-president-at-large, 
Ella B. Boole; corresponding secretary, Frances P. 
Parks; recording secretary, Elizabeth P. Anderson; 

198 



THE WOMAN'S COMMITTEE 

assistant recording secretary, Sara H. Hoge; treas- 
urer, Margaret C. Munns; superintendent of legisla- 
tion, Margaret Dye Ellis; superintendent of soldiers 
and sailors, Ella Hoover Thacher; superintendent 
Flower Mission and Relief, Leila M. Sewall; superin- 
tendent of moral education, Mary E. Brown; superin- 
tendent of temperance and labor, Lucia F. Additon; 
superintendent of foreign-speaking people, Ella B. 
Black. 

In April, 1917, the National Congress of Mothers 
inaugurated the movement to enlist mothers for serv- 
ice in the vicinity of army and navy camps to extend 
as far as possible the home influence to the boys who 
are there. 

The Mothers Army and Navy Camp Committee of 
the National Congress of Mothers was organized, and 
the work immediately begun to arrange for the com- 
fort of the enlisted men when off duty and visiting 
the near by towns. The Congress of Mothers has 
established United Service Clubs under the manage- 
ment of leaders in the Congress, and is arranging for 
comfortable lodgings, recreation rooms and reading 
and writing rooms, having mothers in the building to 
welcome and personally interest themselves in these 
boys. In Philadelphia the largest Club has been es- 
tablished. In the month of October, 1917, over six 
thousand enlisted men enjoyed the Club House. 
There are accommodations for three hundred men to 
sleep in the building. From one to two thousand 
boys every month avail themselves of this privilege. 
Arrangement also for the mothers who wish to visit 
their boys is made by a Mothers' Annex. The 
mothers of enlisted men in the city are being enter- 

199 



AMERICAN WOMEN AND THE WORLD WAR 

tained weekly, and organized for the mother work 
that only mothers can do. 

A similar club has been opened in Baltimore for 
the use of the men in the camps in that vicinity. 
Waukegan, Illinois, has established one. Mrs. Kate 
Waller Barrett was appointed chairman to organize 
the Camp Committees in connection with all of the 
cantonments, and has visited all of the camps in 
the southern states with this in view. The national 
president, Mrs. Schoff, has also visited many of 
these camps, and clubs for enlisted men are be- 
ing established in the vicinity of all of the can- 
tonments. 

^'We are not doing work in the camps," says Mrs. 
SchofP. * ' Our work is the work of extending welcome 
and providing a clean, wholesome, happy place for 
the boys who, by hundreds, are given leave of ab- 
sence. Our belief is that if we organize the forces 
of good we shall do more to counteract the effort of 
the evil women who are organized to tempt to vice, 
than can be done in any other way. We recommend 
to the members of Parent-Teacher Associations the 
following as war measures: 

** Frequent meetings of Parent-Teacher Associa- 
tions through the summer as well as when schools 
are in session. 

*' Taking a census of children in homes from which 
members are enlisted in military service. 

*' Providing when possible a Director of Children's 
Activities and Amusements, and enlisting all chil- 
dren in activities or occupations suitable to their age 
and interest. 

*' Providing a committee of women qualified to 

200 



THE WOMAN'S COMMITTEE 

help erring children by personal influence and 
friendly help when called on for this service. 

''Encouraging and aiding children in home garden 
work. 

''Encouraging and aiding children in habits of 
thrift, in showing girls and mothers how they may 
utilize old garments in making many useful articles. 

"Aiding mothers by showing how to provide 
nourishing diet for their families when so many of 
the usual articles of food must be eliminated, owing 
to their prohibitive prices. 

"Providing wholesome entertainment for youth. 

"Encouraging patriotism and loyalty to the high 
principles of democracy, and inculcating a spirit of 
personal responsibility as a citizen in the hearts of 
parents and children. 

"Providing opportunities for non-English speak- 
ing mothers to learn English and other things that 
aid them in understanding American life and cus- 
toms, and making good citizens and inducing them 
to make use of these opportunities. 

"Holding frequent and regular meetings for 
mothers of little babies where the babies may be ex- 
amined by physicians or nurses and the mothers ad- 
vised as to their care. 

' ' Keeping the school building open for such service 
as the community may require during the War." 

The New Jersey Congress of Mothers has presented 
an ambulance as its service in the war, and is cooper- 
ating with other organizations in the work to make 
the soldiers happier who are in the camps in New 
Jersey. 

The National Congress of Mothers is mobilizing all 

201 



AMERICAN WOMEN AND THE WORLD WAR 

of the mothers of enlisted men for this special service 
and is meeting with a very cordial response. 

The Navy League was an outgrowth of the Spanish- 
American war and was organized in New York in 
1902. It was soon after the organization was per- 
fected that Miss Poe, a newspaper woman of New 
York, and her sister, asked permission to form auxili- 
aries, which was granted to them, and thus the 
Woman's Section of the Navy League came into ex- 
istence. The women have assisted in the various 
phases of work undertaken by the Navy League but 
have centered their interests largely in knitting gar- 
ments for the soldiers, and in working in the camps. 
When war was declared their work in all lines was 
intensified and extended and, inspired by the new 
and larger duty, they set about to increase their 
membership and their usefulness. 

The Comforts Committee of the Navy League, 
which has done so many things for the men on the 
battleships, originated with a sewing party at the 
residence of Mrs. James Carroll Frazer, of Washing- 
ton, D. C, in March of 1917. Only twelve women 
were present at this little sewing party but the seed 
of a great work had been sown, and very soon after 
that the Comforts Committee of the Navy League was 
organized with Mrs. Frazer as chairman. Since 
that date over $500,000 has been furnished and 
more than 300,000 women have worked in the interest 
of the organization. Garments have been furnished 
to the Army and Merchant Marine as well as to the 
Navy. This Committee equipped the first destroy- 
ers, and furnished two thousand seven hundred 
sweaters to the first marines who went abroad — and 

202 



THE WOMAN'S COMMITTEE 

this in ten days after they received the order. Wool 
has been furnished to women who intend returning 
the finished garments to the Committee at sixty-five 
cents per hank, and to others at one dollar per hank. 
The Committee has a very efficient office system, all 
material being indexed as it is received and con- 
signed. It is estimated that the amount spent in the 
work of this Committee approximates $1,000,000. 
The Daughters of the American Revolution, Colonial 
Dames, and other large national organizations of 
women, have cooperated in the work. 

The second encampment of the National Service 
School of the Woman's Section of the Navy League 
was held at Little Falls and Conduit Road, near the 
District (of Columbia) line, during the month of 
April and May, 1917. The main object of the school 
was to give an opportunity to American women to 
acquire special training to be of national service dur- 
ing war. The classes included home care of the sick, 
first aid, dietetics, preparation of sick diets, signal 
work, wireless, scientific bed making, the making of 
surgical dressings, and other ways in which women 
can be of real service. 

The National Service School in the nation's cap- 
ital — the first of its kind in the world — has inspired 
the opening of similar schools throughout the coun- 
try where American women can fit themselves for the 
part they must play in the national service of good 
citizenship and patriotism. A popular feature of the 
National Service School was the afternoon lectures 
by noted men and women, experts in the topics dis- 
cussed. 

In December, 1917, the Woman's Naval Auxiliary 

203 



AMERICAN WOMEN AND THE WORLD WAR 

to the Red Cross was organized and much of the work 
that was being done under the Navy League was co- 
ordinated under the new plan. The Advisory Com- 
mittee of the Woman's Naval Auxiliary to the Red 
Cross consists of: Mrs. Edward T. Stotesbury, Chair- 
man, Philadelphia; Mrs. J. Ogden Armor, Illinois; 
Mrs. Walter B. Brooks, Jr., Maryland; Mrs. George 
Barnett, Washington, D. C. ; Mrs. Frederick Courtiss, 
Chicago ; Mrs. George Dewey, Washington, D. C. ; 
Mrs. George K. Denis, Los Angeles, Cal. ; Mrs. Charles 
Dana Gibson, New York ; Mrs. Cary T. Grayson, Wash- 
ington, D. C. ; Mrs. Charles S. Hamlin, Washington, 

D. C. ; Mrs. Bryan Lathrop, Washington, D. C. ; Mrs. 

E. T. Meredith, Des Moines, Iowa; Mrs. Henry Mor- 
ganthau. New York; Mrs. Henry R. Rea, Sewickly, 
Pa. ; Mrs. Matthew T. Scott, Washington, D. C. ; Mrs. 
James M. Thompson, New Orleans, La. ; Mrs. French 
Vanderbilt, Newport, R. I.; Mrs. Otto Wittpen, Ho- 
boken, N. J. ; Mrs. John Holiday, St. Louis, Mo. 

The League of American Pen Women numbers 
among its members some of the best known women 
writers of America. It is one of the great permanent 
organizations of women that immediately upon the 
declaration of war turned its full power to war work. 
Through its National Aid and Defense Committee the 
organization has accomplished much. *'The chief 
part that the League of American Pen Women must 
play to help win the war is one of education," said 
Mrs. Isaac Pearson, president of the League. Head- 
quarters of the organization are in Washington, and 
the officers are: president, Mrs. Margaret E. Pear- 
son, 1785 Lanier Place, N. W. ; first vice-president, 
Mrs. Theodore TiUer, 1355 Montage Street; second 

204 



THE WOMAN'S COMMITTEE 

vice-president, Mrs. Helen Nelson Doocy, 143 Thir- 
teenth St., N. E.; recording secretary, Miss Dora 
Simpkins, 2811 Central Ave., Woodridge, D. C. ; cor- 
responding secretary, Mrs. Gertrude Buckingham 
Thomas, 1231 Girard Street, N. W. ; assistant corre- 
sponding secretary, Miss Elizabeth A. Hyde, 2947 
Tilden St., N. W.; treasurer, Mrs. Mary St. Clair 
Blackburn, 3313 Seventeenth St., N. W. ; auditor, 
Mrs. Philander P. Claxton, 1719 Lamont St., N. W. ; 
librarian, Mrs. Emma M. V. Triepel, 2516 Seventeenth 
St., N. W. ; historian, Mrs. Virginia King Frye, 301 S 
Street, N. E. The officers of the National Aid and 
Defense Committee of the League are: chairman, 
Mrs. Richard L. Hoxie, 1632 E St., Washington, D. 
C. ; vice-chairman, Mrs. Anna Bogenholm Sloane, 800 
Madison St., Washington, D. C. ; vice-chairman for 
Pacific Coast, Mrs. Bertha Lincoln Heustis, 418 S. 
Normandie Ave., Los Angeles, Cal. 

The Camp Fire Girls of America, 100,000 strong, 
have been doing effective work for their country since 
war was declared. On April 19, seventeen days after 
the declaration of war, President Wilson wrote to Dr. 
Luther H. Gulick, the national president, as follows: 
**I have read with close attention and very great 
interest your telegram of April seventeenth and want 
to say that it seems to me to embody an admirable 
program. I hope that it will be carried out by the 
Camp Fire Girls, and I admire very much the spirit 
in which it has been conceived.'' 

The Camp Fire Girls were very helpful in bringing 
the food pledge cards to the attention of the house- 
wives of America. The girls divided up the territory 
and went from house to house, well equipped to talk 

205 



AMERICAN WOMEN AND THE WORLD WAR 

with the women as to the best ways and means of 
carrying out Mr. Hoover's instructions. At the 
request of Miss Julia Lathrop of the Children's Bu- 
reau the girls were also very helpful in caring for 
children while their mothers were engaged in garden- 
ing or other patriotic service. A large number of 
the Camp Fire Guardians have taken regular Red 
Cross courses and thousands are cooperating in local 
units with Red Cross Societies in all branches of 
their work. They are running errands, picking 
oakum, rolling bandages, making surgical dressings, 
taking courses in nursing, dietetics, etc., and giving 
demonstrations in parades or Red Cross work. 
Thousands have had gardens in their own homes and 
many others are giving voluntary service to charitable 
institutions. 

In a letter to the girls of America the national 
president, Mr. Luther H. Gulick, said : * * Most of the 
homes of America have girls in them. Fifty per 
cent of the money paid for food is wasted in America. 
We waste as much of the fats as we use. We pare 
our potatoes and so lose much of the nutritive por- 
tion. Girls can save much of this waste. Saving 
one cent a day per person would be 10,000,000 dimes, 
$1,000,000, or $365,000,000 in one year. Girls use 
enough candy, sodas and chewing gum to support 
20,000 soldiers." 

The Girl Scouts of America, under the leadership 
of Mrs. Juliette Low, of New York, with a nation- 
wide organization and a fine spirit of patriot- 
ism, have given greatly needed assistance along many 
lines. They have sold Liberty Bonds, distributed 
food pledge cards and have volunteered their services 

206 



THE WOMAN'S COMMITTEE 

and worked cheerfully, singly and in groups, in every 
state in the Union. They have made serapbooks for 
the hospitals and especially have they contributed 
most generously in furnishing Christmas cheer to the 
soldiers in the camps here and in Europe. In Wash- 
ington, D. C, especially, the Girl Scouts have initiated 
many novel and practical ways of doing war work. 
Under direction of Mrs. Edna M. Colman, field secre- 
tary, the girls made hundreds of comfort bags and at 
Christmas time they sent attractive packages to sol- 
diers encamped at Camp Meade. 

Ever since war was declared, Woodcraft Girls have 
been hard at work doing their bit. Aside from the 
special work started by Headquarters there has been 
no lack of spontaneous effort on the part of the girls 
and their guides. Knitting and Red Cross dressings 
have had such a prominent part at the meetings and 
through the week that the girls in some instances have 
sacrificed time that would have otherwise been de- 
voted to the acquiring of the much-coveted Wood- 
craft honors known as coups and degrees. To give 
some recognition to this form of patriotic service, the 
Girls' Work Committee has been asked by some of 
the guides to recommend the adoption of new honors 
suitable for war time. 

The distinctive work for Woodcraft Girls, however, 
c has been found in the Potato Clubs formed by the 
Woodcraft League. Membership was not restricted 
to members of the organization and to those under 
eighteen it was free. Girls — and boys too — in thirty- 
five states enrolled as * ' Potatriots " to the number of 
more than 2,100. Some formed clubs, others worked 
alone to win the silk American Flags offered as prizes, 

207 



AMERICAN WOMEN AND THE WORLD WAR 

one for the largest crop raised from twenty-four hills, 
and one for the largest potato. 

One energetic club was composed by the Wood- 
craft Girls at Rosemary Hall, a school at Greenwich, 
Conn. These girls were fortunate in securing some 
land lent for the purpose by Mr. and Mrs. Ernest 
Thompson-Seton. The girls not only did the planting 
but the much harder work of plowing, and they gave 
their free time to do it. When the summer came and 
many of the girls were scattered over the country, 
they arranged to have girls who lived near By care for 
the plants until their return, thus showing skill in or- 
ganizing as well as in farming. Their work was well 
rewarded by the fine crop they harvested this fall. 

The club of Monmouth County, New Jersey, under 
the leadership of Mrs. Philip Lewisohn, closed the sea- 
son with a fine record, not only for raising potatoes 
and other vegetables, but also for canning. Mrs. 
Schoenfeld, chairman of the cannery, reports that 
$1600 was cleared. The club published a pamphlet of 
recipes and used a Woodcraft label on its canned 
goods. 

The League has as its slogan **The Hoe Behind 
the Flag," which appeared not only on the club but- 
ton but was used by other organizations throughout 
the country to arouse enthusiasm for work on the 
farm. 

The Green Bough is an international fellowship of 
children to afford aid and relief to one another — 
especially from the happy, well-fed children of Amer- 
ica to the starving children of war-stricken Europe. 
Individual children may become members by send- 
ing ten cents to the central organization, for which 

208 



THE WOMAN'S COMMITTEE 

a button will be sent and by agreeing to make some 
contribution to the welfare of children less fortunate 
than themselves. The honorary chairman is Mrs. 
Stephen Millet, and the national headquarters are 
119 East ]9th Street, New York City. 

The Green Bough is affiliated with the International 
Child Welfare League, which is another of the great 
permanent organizations that has only had to intensify 
the great work it was already doing to be one of 
America's most effective machines for work valuable 
in the prosecution of war. 

No organization is doing a more valuable work in a 
specialized field than the Associate Collegiate Alum- 
naB. This organization held its general convention 
in Washington three days after war was declared 
and a War Service Committee was appointed. By 
resolution the services of the organization were placed 
at the disposal of the Government. It is to the 
credit of the Associate Collegiate Alumnae that it was 
one of the first organizations to agitate for the cor- 
rection of conditions about the training camps on the 
Mexican Border. Through its efforts a large num- 
ber of petitions were secured from women's organi- 
zations, and the Associate Collegiate Alumnae re- 
ceived personal expressions of appreciation directly 
from the President and from the Secretary of 
War. 

The organization issued to 10,000 college gradu- 
ates a statement concerning the demand for trained 
stenographers and secretaries and has also made vigor- 
ous efforts to induce college women to enter the nurs- 
ing profession to meet the increased demands in that 
field. In addition to this practical work a large num- 

209 



AMERICAN WOMEN AND THE WORLD WAR 



1 



ber of the 100 branches of the organization are sup- 
porting one or more French war orphans. 

A very interesting plan has been launched through 
the War Service Committee, which consists of Presi- 
dent Thomas, of Bryn Mawr; President Pendleton, 
of Wellesley; President Woolley, of Mt. Holyoke; 
Mrs. Lois K. Mathews, Dean of Women, L^iversity 
of Wisconsin, president of the Association; IVIiss 
Caroline L. Humphrey, former president ; IMrs. Ray- 
mond B. Morgan, president of the Washington 
Branch, and Mrs. Gertrude S. Martin, executive sec- 
retary. The plan will concentrate the efforts of the 
whole association upon patriotic education. A Speak- 
ers' Bureau will cooperate directly with the Speakers' 
Division of the Committee on Public Information. 
The purpose is to carry into the remotest regions of 
the country the message of the necessity for this war 
and the peril of a premature peace. Conferences of 
college women have been called in many states and 
speakers are provided with such information as may 
be available. Eminent men and women will also be 
brought from abroad to present the point of view of 
our allies to the school, colleges and normal schools 
of this country. The plan is an ambitious one and 
is deserving of the heartiest commendation. 

The Colonial Dames, under the able leadership of 
Mrs. Joseph R. Lamar, of Georgia, who is also a mem- 
ber of the Woman's Committee of the Council of Na- 
tional Defense, have been actively engaged in some 
form of constructive war work since the beginning of 
hostilities and are planning still more ambitious work 
for the immediate future. 

The United Daughters of the Confederacy, first 

210 



THE WOMAN'S COMMITTEE 

under the presidency of Mrs. Cordelia D. Odenheimer, 
of Washington, and later under Miss Poppenheim, of 
South Carolina, have worked in various fields in every 
state where they are organized. The chapters in the 
various states have undertaken many novel kinds of 
work with great success and plans for the future call 
for an expansion of present activities. 

A complete account of what the various women's or- 
ganizations are doing to help in the prosecution of war 
would not be possible. There is not a single organi- 
zation, from the largest to the smallest, that is not 
doing its utmost. However, no mention of the work 
of the women's organizations of America would be just 
that did not include something of America's greatest 
organization, The National Council of Women, which 
includes practically all of the organizations of women 
in this country. Mrs. Philip N. Moore, of St. Louis, 
is president of the National Council of Women and 
among its officers are some of the most prominent 
women in the country. 

Through the many strong organizations composing 
it the Council is sharing in the great task that con- 
fronts the women of America and at the national meet- 
ing in December, 1917, resolutions were adopted which 
set forth the Council's active interest in all of the 
great movements that tend toward making the world 
better and spreading the gospel of the sisterhood of 
women. 



PART TWO 
STATE ORGANIZATIONS 



CHAPTER XVI 
ALABAMA, ARKANSAS, AND ARIZONA 

Alabama Women quickly perfect organization in every 
county — Work financed by voluntary contributions — 
First activity was distribution of President's war mes- 
sage to men who enlisted — Governor proclaims 
Woman's Registration Day — Women's work in Arkan- 
sas and Arizona — Alaska furnishes inspiration to her 
sister states. 

In directing the organization of the women 
throughout the country from its headquarters in 
Washington, the Woman's Committee of the Council 
of National Defense has never dictated, but has con- 
fined itself to outlining a general plan and making 
such suggestions as seemed practicable. For this 
reason the story of women's war work in the vari- 
ous states is filled with interest. The leaders in 
these states have initiated many novel plans and de- 
veloped many new and valuable ideas. Emphasis 
has been placed where it was most needed, and always 
local conditions have been carefully considered. In 
the rich agricultural states work in the early months 
of war was centered on the production and the con- 
servation of food ; in the states in which the large in- 
dustrial plants are located, the problems arising con- 
cerning women in industry were given most atten- 
tion; but in every state the women worked inde- 

215 



AMERICAN WOMEN AND THE WORLD WAR 

fatigably in the interest of Mr. Hoover's campaign, 
the sale of Liberty Bonds and in Registration. 

Where reports from some of the states seem meager 
it does not in any sense mean that the women have 
not worked bravely, individually and through their 
organizations. It generally means that local condi- 
tions prevented a complete organization in the first 
month or two of the war. This was especially true 
in the states where the weather was extremely hot 
and where many of the women were away from their 
homes. In the larger cities the organizations were 
perfected more quickly, but the women of the smaller 
towns in every state have rendered valuable service. 

Alabama. The women of Alabama, under the able 
chairmanship of Mrs. James Fullerton Hooper, of 
Selma, within a few months after they were ap- 
pointed, had perfected organizations in nearly one 
hundred cities and towns and in ninety-eight coun- 
ties. This was the more remarkable because the work 
was inaugurated and carried on through voluntary 
contributions. 

The Alabama branch of the Woman's Committee 
of the Council of National Defense cooperates with 
the State Council of Defense through Mrs. Hooper, 
who was appointed by the Governor as a member of the 
State Coordination Committee. Alabama furnishes 
a shining example of coordination. 

Mrs. Hooper has worked unceasingly since war was 
declared, and the story of the work of the women of 
her state is best told by her. She says: *' When the 
tocsin of war was sounded, all good citizens of Ala- 
bama, male and female, answered *Here' to the roll 
call of patriots. The women both in action and speech 

216 



STATE ORGANIZATIONS 

testified that the love and devotion, the service and 
sacrifice, the patience and patriotism of the women 
of this generation was no whit behind that of the 
women of the sixties. 

*'At the request of Dr. Anna Howard Shaw the 
state organizations united in forming the Council of 
National Defense, and since that time every depart- 
ment has been formulating plans to meet successfully 
the demands of the hour. As an organized body the 
first activity was the distribution of the President's 
war message to the men as they enlisted for war 
service, which was done through committees placed 
at each polling place. 

* ' The second call was from Mr. Hoover for the dis- 
tribution of the Conservation Pledge Cards. Al- 
though our women as club women had signed the 
Economy Card sent out by the General Federation, 
as good soldiers they undertook the second campaign 
with spirit and enthusiasm. In cities, a house to 
house canvass was made, and in some cities commit- 
tees stood in the vestibules of the churches on the 
Sabbath Day in order to reach those whom they failed 
to find at home: the rural districts were canvassed 
by the use of automobiles, and in localities where we 
had no units or clubs the distr'ibution was made 
through the local postmasters or mistresses, to whom 
we owe much praise. The campaign was inaugurated 
by short addresses by prominent men, at picture 
theaters. Agriculture has been emphasized by lec- 
tures, demonstrations, and home gardening. It would 
do the heart of the national chairman good to know 
how obedient many have been, even to sacrificing 
beautiful lawns for luxuriant field peas. The work of 

217 



AMERICAN WOMEN AND THE WORLD WAR 

agriculture has been carried on in a most systematic 
way. Home, school and community gardens were en- 
couraged, prizes were offered for the best specimens 
and collections both in the white and negro schools, 
and hundreds of plants and packages of seeds were 
distributed among the negroes, who have shown un- 
usual interest and patriotism. The President of the 
Colored Women's Federation of Clubs has been most 
helpful in the work and has shown a beautiful spirit 
of loyalty and cooperation. 

* ' Registration was a unique experience with us, but 
we boldly attempted it, and considering the fact that 
women are innately opposed to * signing up,' we did 
well. The Governor kindly proclaimed a special day 
for the registration of women for service, and well 
trained registrars were in charge of registration places 
located in different parts of the cities and counties. 
Already we are realizing results from the work, for 
our business men make use of these cards to find 
bookkeepers, stenographers, etc. 

* ' The club women as club women are doing a great 
work along health lines. Having become auxiliary 
to the Southern Medical Association they have em- 
phasized the Health Department, and a number of 
clubs banded together and equipped a Field Hospital 
in France. A second group immediately began rais- 
ing the funds necessary to equip another hospital. 

*'The Council of Defense is composed of all or- 
ganizations, and the president of each is chairman 
of a department ; while each chairman plans the work 
that naturally falls to her, all organizations unite to 
make it a success, for with unity of hearts and unity 
of hand we are undertaking the great task that is 

218 



STATE ORGANIZATIONS 

before us. In times of danger and disaster women 
have never failed, and they will not falter nor fail 
now, in this their nation's greatest need." 

Serving with Mrs. Hooper are the following of- 
ficers: vice-chairmen, Mrs. Thomas M. Owen, Mont- 
gomery; Mrs. Rhett Goode, Mobile; secretary, Mrs. 
J. B. Parke, Selma; treasurer, Mrs. William Gayle, 
Montgomery. 

Arkansas. *' Arkansas women are wide awake and 
eager to do all that is expected of them," says the 
honorary state chairman, Mrs. Charles H. Brough, 
Little Rock. ''We are going to do our part in win- 
ning this war and victory must come." Arkansas is 
organized through townships and school districts. 
Organization was perfected soon after the call was 
received from Washington, and by July 16, fifteen 
out of the seventy-five counties were fully organized 
and were hard at work. As there is no state appro- 
priation for defense work the Committee met its 
financial obligations by voluntary contributions from 
patriotic individuals and from clubs. The officers of 
the division meet regularly every Tuesday morning 
and discuss ways and means of working out the vari- 
ous problems that arise. Mrs. Brough, the honorary 
state chairman, is also state chairman for the Liberty 
Loan Committee. The majority of the counties are 
well organized. Arkansas did splendid work in sale 
of the Liberty Loan bonds under the chairmanship 
of Mrs. Brough. Liberty Loan chairmen for the va- 
rious districts are: Mrs. Harry Williams, Jones- 
boro ; Mrs. Bruce Massingill, Heber Springs ; Mrs. Al- 
len G. Flowers, Fayetteville ; Mrs. Scab Holt, Fort 
Smith; Mrs. J. W. House, Little Rock; Mrs. T. 0. 

219 



AMERICAN WOMEN AND THE WORLD WAR 

Drennan, Hot Springs; Mrs. Dougald McMillan, 
Arkadelphia. Officers of the Arkansas Division of 
the Woman's Committee of the Council of National 
Defense are : chairman, Mrs. Jo Frauenthal, Conway ; 
vice-chairman, Mrs. J. E. Andrews, Harrison; secre- 
tary, Mrs. Minnie Rutherford-Fuller, Little Rock; 
treasurer. Miss Mary Honora McCabe, Little Rock. 
Heads of departments are: Registration, Mrs. 
Schoenfeldt, Little Rock; Food Production, Mrs. 
Byrd Tatum, Morrillton ; Child Welfare, Mrs. G. W. 
Garrison, Little Rock; Maintenance of Existing So- 
cial Agencies, Mrs. Frank Peel, Bentonville; Educa- 
tion, Mrs. C. H. Brough, Little Rock; Liberty Loan, 
Mrs. E. 0. Ellington, Little Rock; Health and Recre- 
ation, Mrs. Markwell, Little Rock. 

Arizona. Although Arizona was one of the states 
in which local conditions rendered early organization 
difficult, the women of that state have accomplished 
much, and the state is organized along very practical 
lines. The conditions in the mountain districts re- 
tarded the work of organization during the first 
months of war, but through their clubs and indi- 
vidually the women have worked industriously along 
all lines that have been suggested to them from 
Washington. The state was organized by townships 
and school districts. There are twenty-five members 
of the Woman's Committee which works along the 
same lines as the Men's Committee. The State De- 
fense Council finances the work of the Woman '3 
Committee and provides for it as a part of its own 
organization. Mrs. Pauline O'Neill, chairman of the 
Woman's Committee, is also a member of the Coun- 
cil of Defense and is a member of the executive com- 

220 



STATE ORGANIZATIONS 

mittee of that body. All of the leading women's or- 
ganizations of the state are cooperating in the state 
defense work, coordinating their efforts under the 
Federated Clubs. These include the W. C. T. U., 
Mother's Congress, D. A. R., Collegiate Alumnae, 
Eastern Star, Pythian Sisters, State Federation of 
Musical Clubs, Council of Jewish Women, Woman's 
Missionary Society of the Methodist Episcopal 
Church, Young Ladies' Mutual Improvement Society, 
etc. 

The officers of the Arizona Woman's Committee of 
the Council of National Defense are: chairman, Mrs. 
E. B. O'Neill, Phoenix; heads of departments: Child 
Welfare, Mrs. J. C. Norton, Phoenix; Liberty Loan, 
Alice Birdsall, Phoenix; Home and Foreign Relief, 
Mrs. Gordon Tweed, Phoenix ; Health and Recreation, 
Mrs. I. Lachance, Phoenix. 

Alaska. It should be very inspiring to the women 
of the older states to know of the splendid spirit of 
patriotism evident among the women of Alaska. 
Immediately following the Declaration of War, and 
the President's letter to the governors of states, sug- 
gesting the enlistment of women in war service, Mrs. 
J. F. A. Strong, wife of the governor, sent out a call 
for the organization of an Alaska Woman's Patriotic 
League. The founders' chapter was established at 
Juneau, the capital city, with Mrs. Strong as presi- 
dent. Active cooperation was given by the Woman's 
Christian Temperance Union, and Mrs. Cornelia Tem- 
pleton Hatcher, territorial president, organized the 
Patriotic League in all the principal towns. The plan 
of work included a monthly meeting for the considera- 
tion of the food conservation and other problems inci- 

221 



AMERICAN WOMEN AND THE WORLD WAR 

dent to the war. When the Woman's Commit- 
tee of the Council of National Defense was created, 
Mrs. T. J. Donahoe of Valdez, president of the Fed- 
erated Clubs, was appointed territorial representative 
of the Committee, and the general outline of work fur- 
nished the states from the National Capital was fol- 
lowed in so far as it was applicable. The registration 
of women for war service was undertaken by the Pa- 
triotic League, all the other women's organizations co- 
operating. The League has also endowed an Alaskan 
bed in the ward maintained by the Department of the 
Interior in the American Hospital at Neuilly, France. 

The adoption of French war orphans has been the 
special work of the territorial W. C. T. U., in addition 
to its usual contributions through the Department of 
Work among Soldiers and Sailors. 

Every town has a Red Cross Chapter or auxiliary 
and has contributed generously in both funds and 
supplies. 

Mrs. Donohoe pays this tribute to the men and 
women of her territory : 

''There is no state in the Union more loyal to our 
Government, and no people more ready to sacrifice 
lives and possessions in its defense. The awakening 
to the actuality of the war in which we are engaged 
has come slowly owing to the great distance interven- 
ing, but once awake, the call to arms will find a ready 
response. ' ^ 



CHAPTER XVII 

CALIFORNIA, COLORADO, AND CONNECTICUT 

Heads of all women's organizations form California's 
Central Committee — Cooperate with national and state 
defense work — Women share in $100,000 defense fund 
— Colorado's organization unique — Women have equal 
representation on State Council — Connecticut fur- 
nishes example of perfect coordination and cooperation 
— State Chairman gives story of work. 

California. A Committee was organized at the 
request of the Woman ^s Committee of the National 
Council of Defense, and at the time of its organiza- 
tion was made a part of the State Council of De- 
fense. The Committee shares the headquarters of 
the State Council of Defense both in Los Angeles and 
San Francisco, and the office expenses are borne by a 
monthly appropriation made to the Committee from 
the funds of the State Council of Defense. 

The Central Committee is made up of heads of all 
the State organizations of women which have offered 
cooperation with the national and state defense work. 

The first meeting for organization was held in San 
Francisco when an Executive Committee was elected. 
For convenience and efficiency several members have 
been elected to the Executive Committee since that 
date. 

The first work of the Committee was the organiza- 

223 



AMERICAN WOMEN AND THE WORLD WAE 

tion of the state with the counties as units. The or- 
ganization of the counties was conducted on the same 
plan as that followed in the organization of the state. 
Some woman in each county was asked to act as 
temporary chairman to call together representatives 
from each organization of women in the county, from 
which representation the permanent officers for the 
county were elected. It was left to the counties 
themselves to choose the details of their organizations. 

Most of the counties have a chairman, a vice-chair- 
man, a secretary and treasurer. Some of the coun- 
ties are organized by supervisorial districts with a 
chairman in each, or by incorporated towns with a 
chairman in each town, or by artificial districts. 
There is now an organization in every county of the 
state. 

The work of organizing a large state like California 
is a considerable accomplishment in itself. It was 
the important first step to get the machinery ready 
for the carrying out of plans made by the Woman's 
Committee of the National Council of Defense or by 
the State Council of Defense. 

The first thing that the Committee was asked to 
do was to help in the campaign for the Liberty Loan 
bonds. A chairman for northern California and one 
for southern California were appointed, who did 
remarkably efficient work in their respective sections. 
The chairman of the Men's Committee for the Liberty 
Bond campaign said that after the Women's Com- 
mittee got to work a fifty per cent, increase was notice- 
able in the sale of the bonds. 

The principal work of the Women's Committee in 
the beginning was to spread the doctrine of food 

224 



STATE ORGANIZATIONS 

conservation. To do this it was necessary to mobilize 
a vast army of housewives, and in order to accom- 
plish this mobilization much education was neces- 
sary. This has been along lines of the need for con- 
servation and suggestions for ways of economizing 
and eliminating waste. Copies of the Hoover Food 
Pledges have been circulated throughout the state 
through the chairmen of the County Committees. 
This has been followed by education in the scientific 
methods of canning, drying and preserving food given 
by demonstrators from the Department of Agricul- 
ture, University of California. By fall thirty coun- 
ties of the state had been covered by food demon- 
strators, and itineraries had been planned for demon- 
strators in the remaining counties of the state. 

Communication is kept up between the executive 
committee and the county chairman by circular let- 
ters which set forth plans for work and give sugges- 
tions and directions for household economy and ma- 
terial for publicity. Plans made for the establish- 
ment of housekeepers' institutes by the head of the 
Home Economics Department of the University of 
California were sent to each county. Cooperation 
has been established between this Committee and the 
State Library and through it with the County Li- 
braries all over the state. There are being prepared 
bibliographies of all periodicals and magazines deal- 
ing with the question of food conservation and women 
in industry, and from time to time such other prob- 
lems as are brought to the attention of the Committee. 

The Committee made an investigation into the sup- 
ply of labor throughout southern California and 
made a report of its findings to the farm labor com- 

225 



AMERICAN WOMEN AND THE WORLD WAR 

mittee of the University of California. It has also 
pointed out to the county chairman the necessity for 
vigilance in maintaining a standard of wages and 
conditions for women, who on account of the read- 
justment that will be necessitated for the drafting of 
men into the army will be forced into industry. The 
Committee has also in mind the maintenance of ex- 
isting social agencies and educational standards. 
Through the experts from the different state com- 
missions and boards, the Committee receives plans 
and suggestions along the line of Americanization, 
industrial conditions, public health and child wel- 
fare. 

Meetings of the executive committee are held once 
a week in Los Angeles, and similar meetings are held 
by the northern members in San Francisco. A meet- 
ing of the southern members of the Central Commit- 
tee is held once a month in Los Angeles, and of the 
northern members once a month in San Francisco. 
It is the plan in the future to have occasional meet- 
ings of the whole membership of the Executive Com- 
mittee and of the Central Committee. 

There is close cooperation between the State De- 
fense Council and the Woman's Committee. Four 
members of the latter are on sub-committees of the 
State Council. There is an appropriation of $100,- 
000 by the legislature for state defense work and 
headquarters are provided for the Woman's Com- 
mittee by the State Council in San Francisco. A 
special grant is also made by the State Council for 
printing and distributing food pledges, stationery 
and office supplies. Headquarters in Los Angeles 
were donated by Mr. E. T. Earl. 

226 



STATE ORGANIZATIONS 

The Woman's Committee of California consists of: 
honorary chairman, Mrs. Frank Gibson; chairman, 
Mrs. Herbert A. Cable ; member State Council of De- 
fense, Mrs. Robert 0. Moody; vice-chairman, Mrs. 
Stella B. Irvine; vice-chairman, Mrs. Edward F. 
Glaser; vice-chairman, Mrs. Shelley Tolhurst; mem- 
ber State Council of Defense, Miss Ethel Moore; 
member State Council of Defense, Mrs. Seward A. 
Simons; secretary, Mrs. Cleveland Forbes; assistant 
secretary, Mrs. Frances M. Carlton Harmon; Mrs. 
Herbert A. Cable, California Federation of Women's 
Clubs; Mrs. C. C. Clay, Daughters of the Confeder- 
acy; Miss Ora B. Chilton, Home Economics Associa- 
tion; Mrs. Sarah J. Door, Northern, Women's Chris- 
tian Temperance Union; Mrs. Lawrence Draper, 
Young Women's Christian Association; Mrs. Stella 
B. Irvine, Women's Christian Temperance Union; 
Mrs. John C. Lynch, Daughters of the American 
Revolution; Mrs. Robert ,0. Moody, California 
Civic League; Dr. Jessie A. Russell, Congress of 
Mothers and Parent-Teachers Association ; Miss Grace 
Stoermer, Native Daughters of the Golden West; 
Miss Electa Van Eman, California Nurses' Associa- 
tion; Mrs. Carrie L. Hoyt, Woman's Relief Corps; 
Mrs. Duncan McDuffie, National League for Women's 
Service; Mrs. Willoughby Rodman, Belgian Relief 
Committee ; Mrs. F. C. Turner, Association Collegiate 
Alumnae; Dr. Adelaide Brown, State Board of 
Health ; Mrs. Carrie P. Bryant, State Board of Chari- 
ties; Mrs. Katherine P. Edson, State Industrial Wel- 
fare Commission; Mrs. Frank A. Gibson, State Im- 
migration and Housing Commission; Mrs. Margaret 
Schallenberger McNaught, State Board of Education; 

227 



AMERICAN WOMEN AND THE WORLD WAR 

Mrs. Frances M. Carlton Harmon, State Library 
Board. 

Colorado, The organization of the Woman's Com- 
mittee in Colorado is somewhat different from that 
of the other states. The Governor divided the de- 
fense work of the state into two sections, the War 
Council, a body of men, and the Woman's Advisory 
Council, a body of women. The two bodies work in 
close cooperation and because they stand side by side 
and are given equal power to initiate and carry for- 
ward their plans, much has been accomplished. 

The Woman's Advisory Council to the Governor 
of Colorado consists of a chairman, vice-chairman, 
treasurer, two secretaries, an auditor, an executive 
committee and seventeen departments. These are all 
appointed by the Governor. The departments are 
as follows: Organization; Finance; Registration; 
Home Relief; Foreign Relief; Production, Conserva- 
tion and Thrift; Women in Industry; Education — 
(a) Literature, (b) Current Events concerning 
women's war work; Child Welfare; Maintenance of 
Existing Social Agencies (settlements, philanthropies, 
day nurseries, hospitals, general social service, etc.) ; 
Courses of Instruction (organization of training 
classes in work for which the state furnishes a de- 
mand) ; Safeguarding of Moral and Spiritual Forces ; 
Liberty Loan; Publicity; Legislation; Cooperation; 
Speakers' Department. 

The Advisory Council has a competent chief for 
each department who reports at regular meetings. 
The counties have been organized on the same system 
by means of a circular letter sent out by the chairman 
of the Organization Department. 

228 



STATE ORGANIZATIONS 

One exceedingly interesting bit of effective war 
work was this; the Council prepared films to be used 
for moving pictures in order to arouse interest in 
registration and the conservation of food. In large 
letters was printed the following sentence : 

The Government of the United States is compiHng a 
directory of women and is classifying them according to 
their capacity for service. 

Underneath was a copy of the Registration card, and 
below, the following sentence: 

Sign this registration card or your name may be omitted 
from the list of loyal women. 

The Conservation film has these sentences : 

Famine threatens the world! 

Women of America, join the "Hoover Army" for food 
conservation by signing this pledge. 

This was followed by the Food Conservation Regis- 
tration Blank and below it a quotation from the 
President's speech: 

Every house wife who practices strict economy puts her- 
self in the ranks of those who serve the nation. 

WOODROW WlLrSON-. 

Colorado has expressed the hope that films with 
these inscriptions will be shown all through the coun- 
try and will serve to awaken interest in both regis- 
tration and food conservation. 

The Council has instituted a festival of the Harvest 
Home, a revival of the old New England custom, to 
be held on Sunday, Sept. 30th. It is suggested that 
every householder shall give a tithe, or tenth, of all 

229 



AMERICAN WOMEN AND THE WORLD WAR 

jellies, jams and home produce, following the old 
Bible custom. This tenth is to be distributed among 
the needy, the churches to be given according to their 
necessities and the remainder to be donated to the 
Red Cross civilian poor and the city poor. 

The Council has also had printed for distribution 
among the children attractively colored and decorated 
cards containing a pledge to service. 

Regular meetings of the Council are held every 
month at headquarters in the State Capitol, Denver. 
The officers of the Colorado Woman's Committee are: 
Mrs. W. H. Kistler, Denver ; first vice-chairman, Mrs. 
Alva Adams, Pueblo; second vice-chairman, Mrs. Z. 
X. Snyder, Greeley; third vice-chairman, Mrs. Price 
Dunleavy, Trinidad; fourth vice-chairman, Mrs. E. 
C. Goddard, Colorado Springs; fifth vice-chairman, 
Mrs. Rosepha Pulford, Denver; sixth vice-chairman, 
Mrs. Mary E. Wilkins, Ft. Collins; seventh vice-chair- 
man, Mrs. Charles H. Jacobson, Denver; treasurer, 
Mrs. Harold Kuntze, Denver; auditor, Miss Merle 
McClintock, Grand Junction; recording secretary, 
Mrs. W. W. Grant, Jr., Denver, Colorado ; correspond- 
ing secretary, Mrs. Horton Pope, Denver; Executive 
Committee: Mrs. Thomas McCue, Denver; Mrs. B. 
F. Stickley, Leadville; Mrs. W. J. Williams, Cripple 
Creek; Mrs. C. P. Cochran, Ft. Morgan; Miss Annie 
Ensminger, Denver; Mrs. Gerald Schuyler, Denver; 
Mrs. John Maxv^ell, Denver; Mrs. James B. Grant, 
Denver; Mrs. M. D. McEniry, Denver; Mrs. W. R. 
Galloway, Denver; Mrs. Helen Miller, Denver; Mrs. 
James Rae Arneill, Denver ; Miss Edith Thomas, Den- 
ver; Mrs. Thomas Keeley, Denver; Mrs. I. J. Lewis, 
Colorado Springs; Mrs. Fred Dick, Denver; Mrs. 

230 



STATE ORGANIZATIONS, 

Thomas Burbridge, Denver: Heads of Departments: 
Registration, Mrs. W. J. Williams, Cripple Creek; 
Home Economics, Mrs. Rosepha Pulford, Denver; 
Women in Industry, Mrs. Helen Miller, Denver; 
Child Welfare, Mrs. J. R. Arneill, Denver; Main- 
tenance of Existing Social Agencies, Mrs. W. S. Iffley, 
Denver; Education, Mrs. B. F. Stickley, Leadville; 
Liberty Loan, Mrs. Edward Rassler, Denver; Home 
and Allied Relief, Mrs. M. D. McEniry, Denver; Mrs. 
W. R. Galloway, Denver; Health and Recreation, 
Mrs. Thomas Keely, Denver; Organization, Mrs. 
Charles Jacobson, Denver; Publicity, Mrs. Gerald 
Schuyler, Denver; Finance, Mrs. Harold Kuntze, 
Denver; Legislation, Mrs. Inez Lewis, Colorado 
Springs; Cooperation, Mrs. Fred Dick, Denver; In- 
struction Courses, Mrs. Z. X. Snyder, Greeley. 

Connecticut. The story of the organization of Con- 
necticut's women for war work as outlined by the 
able chairman, Caroline Ruutz-Rees, of Greenwich, is 
one that is full of inspiration, and Connecticut should 
furnish an example to all of her sister states in the 
matter of perfect coordination and cordial coopera- 
tion. 

The Connecticut Division of the Woman's Com- 
mittee of the Council of National Defense was formed 
at a meeting held on June 1, 1917, at Hartford, and 
Caroline Ruutz-Rees was elected chairman at this 
meeting. The following October she was invited to 
act as chairman of the Committee on Women's Activi- 
ties of the State Council of Defense. The other mem- 
bers of the Committee were either invited to serve as 
individuals on the various committees of the State 
Council of Defense or to act as the Executive Com- 

231 



AMERICAN WOMEN AND THE WORLD WAR 

mittee of the Committee on Women 's Activities ; thus 
the Woman's Committee is closely connected with 
both Federal and State Governments. It can sit 
either as the Connecticut Division of the Woman's 
Committee of the Council of National Defense, with 
its heads of departments all voting members of the 
executive Board, or it can resolve itself into the Com- 
mittee on Women's Activities of the State Council of 
Defense. 

An outline of the remarkable work done by the 
Connecticut women is furnished by the chairman as 
follows: **As the Committee on Women's Activities 
it is financed by the State Council in all efforts which 
the Council endorses. It may at its wish finance and 
carry out any work suggested from Washington or 
inaugurated by itself, to which the State Council is 
indifferent. On the other hand it pledges itself to 
engage in no undertaking objectionable to the State 
Council of Defense. 

'*The prospect of financing for itself some of its 
measures has no terrors for the Connecticut Division, 
for its treasurer, Mrs. H. A. Bumstead, has optimism 
and energy to provide funds for any undertaking. 
There seems no likelihood, however, that she will be 
called upon to do this, for the State Council of De- 
fense has shown itself indifferent to nothing proposed 
by the Committee on Women's Activities. They are 
providing not only typewriter and other office fur- 
niture, and stenographers, but a much coveted execu- 
tive secretary, a highly trained college woman now 
holding a very responsible position in a university. 
They also provide publicity, and our publicity chair- 
man, Mrs. Ernest Thompson-Seton, has only to decide 

232 



STATE ORGANIZATIONS 

what is to be published and in what shape, to have the 
matter properly attended to. 

* ' The generous attitude of the State Council of De- 
fense makes the work of the Woman's Committee 
both easy and fruitful. Even before the union of the 
Committee with the State Council of Defense it met 
with the utmost friendliness and support from that 
organization. A room in the Capitol was provided, 
cards for the registration of women were printed and 
an appropriation made for their cataloguing by the 
State Librarian — a capable census maker. 

"Some of the sub-committees of the Connecticut 
Division are intensively organized all over the state 
— notably the Committee on Food Conservation of 
which Miss Estelle Sprague of Storrs College is the 
head. It has done great things in distributing the 
Hoover pledge, and has enlisted the finest women all 
over the state for the United States food pledge drive. 

**Mrs. Morgan G. Bulkley, who is the Connecticut 
chairman of the National Woman's Liberty Loan 
Committee, is also our chairman for the Liberty Loan. 
She is doing all in her power to help the Woman's 
Committee in its Liberty Loan drive throughout 
every town in the state. 

"Mrs. E. W. W. Hayward has been very active in 
the matter of helping to get 'deliveries' and 'returns' 
cut down. She has interested every woman's asso- 
ciation in the state, beginning with the powerful 
Housewives' League of which she is chairman. 

"Mrs. W. Sheffield Cowles — ex-President "Roose- 
velt's sister — ^has kept us in close touch with the Red 
Cross work and is lending support to the splendid 
plan of our chairman of Medical Service, Dr. Kate 

233 



AMERICAN WOMEN AND THE WORLD WAR 

Campbell Mead, for a Woman's Convalescent Hospi- 
tal Unit for Connecticut. Dr. Mead has been vice- 
president of the State Medical Society, a signal honor 
for a Connecticut woman, and any plan she inaugu- 
rates is sure of success. 

*^Miss Susan Huntington, chairman of educational 
propaganda, has circularized the schools of the state 
in the interests of an increase in the number of 
nurse's assistants, and keeps schools and societies in 
touch with all propaganda from the National Com- 
mittee. Miss Huntington is well known for her or- 
ganization of the Government schools in Porto Rico 
and also as head of the International School in Spain 
founded by Dr. Gulick. 

'*In the Department of Health and Recreation the 
committee has done very helpful work. Its chair- 
man, Dr. Valeria Parker, has been appointed on the 
State Police, and five policewomen have been ap- 
pointed under her to work in the camps. They have 
done much to bring about good conditions in the 
three Connecticut camps. They are assisted by vol- 
unteer patrols supplied by the National League for 
Women's Service. Dr. Parker and her Committee 
have planned for the wholesome entertainment of the 
enlisted men, have arrested transgressors of the law, 
and are daily helping, collectively and singly, the 
girls who haunt the camps for reasons varying from 
innocent sentimental curiosity or enthusiasm to pro- 
fessional immorality. 

*'Dr. Mary C. Welles, head of the Consumer's 
League has, as chairman of the Protection of Women 
Workers Department, made an exhaustive report on 
the *Ten Standards' recommended by the Women's 

234 



STATE ORGANIZATIONS 

Trade Union League for women in government em- 
ploy. 

*'Mrs. Arthur Dodge, our chairman of Social 
Service, so well known as president of the Day Nurs- 
ery Association, is taking steps towards the increase 
of day nurseries in the state in view of the increasing 
number of women being dra\\Ti into industry. Mrs. 
"W". E. D. Scott, chairman for the Health and Wel- 
fare of Children Department, is engaged upon a sur- 
vey of conditions surrounding the children in the 
state, in houses, schools, and institutions. 

''The Committee has undertaken various single 
tasks such as a letter to school girls urging them to 
help in patriotic endeavor and pointing out the value 
of acquiring a sound education as a duty to the state ; 
or as the distribution, throughout the schools of the 
state, of pamphlets issued by the Department of 
Public Information. 

**One quality possessed by the Committee which is 
none the less striking for not being original in this 
war time, is its unanimity for war work across all 
differences of view in other regards. Women known 
all over the state as suffragists work enthusiastically 
with women no less known for their anti-suffrage ac- 
tivities. Catholics and Protestants, Republicans, 
Progressives, Democrats, all are working together for 
good. These differences are only referred to as they 
enable the Committee to reach a wider public of 
women — ^to reach, in fact, the whole woman public of 
the state." 

The officers are: chairman, Caroline Ruutz-Eees; 
secretary, Mrs. Ernest Thompson-Seton ; treasurer, 
Mrs. H. A. Bumstead; vice-chairmen: Mrs. William 

235 



AMERICAN WOMEN AND THE WORLD WAR 

Sheffield Cowles, Mrs. Morgan G. Bulkley, Mrs. Ed- 
ward W. W. Hayward, Mrs. John Laidlaw Buel: 
members Executive Board: Miss M. Estelle Sprague, 
Mrs. Richard M. Bissell, Dr. Mary C. Welles, Dr. 
Valeria H. Parker, Dr. Kate Campbell Mead, Mrs. 
W. E. D. Scott, Mrs. Arthur Dodge, Miss Susan B. 
Huntington, Mrs. Arthur T. Hadley, Miss Christine 
J. Haas, Mrs. Herbert Knox Smith, Mrs. Charles A. 
Jackson, Mrs. Cannon. 



CHAPTER XVIII 
DELAWARE, FLORIDA, AND THE NATIONAL CAPITAL 

War work in Delaware centers in Wilmington — In first 
month of war over 1,000 community gardens were 
planted — Outline of work done by women of national 
capital — Ladies of the Senate organize to sew for Red 
Cross — President's wife a contributor — Women set fine 
example to the Nation — Florida women follow sugges- 
tions from National Woman's Committee — Presidents 
of state organizations form Woman's Committee. 

Delaware, In Delaware the Committee on Na- 
tional Defense was started in Wilmington the last of 
March, when a large group of women organized for 
work in the city of Wilmington. The state being 
largely agricultural in the two lower counties, and 
Wilmington containing about one-half the popula- 
tion of the state, the work largely concerned itself 
with, the city of Wilmington. 

Organization was perfected by the appointment of 
Committees on Home Economics, Community Gar- 
dens, Public Health and Nursing, Americanization or 
Friendly Committee, Training for Motor Service and 
Enrollment for Service. 

The Community Gardens, in the first month of 
war, planted over a thousand gardens and about three 
hundred and twenty-five back yard gardens. These 
yielded good results and the Committee on Economics 

237 



AMERICAN WOMEN AND THE WORLD WAR 



followed the food production work by conducting 
canning classes in various parts of the state. These 
classes were conducted mainly by women connected 
with the Economics Department of Delaware College. 

The Governor of the state appointed a Food Con- 
servation Committee in May, 1917, and the first week 
in July the Woman ^s Committee of National Defense 
became a state instead of a city organization and ap- 
pointed a chairman for each of the three counties of 
the state. Mrs. S. Harrington Messick, of Bridgeville, 
Delaware, is chairman for Sussex County, Mrs. L. 
Irving Handy, Smyrna, for Kent County, and Mrs. 
Alfred D. Warner, Wilmington, is chairman for New 
Castle County; while Mrs. Preston Lea, Wilmington, 
is chairman of the Wilmington Committee, and Mrs. 
Charles R. Miller is chairman of the State Committee. 

The Hoover Pledge Cards were distributed through 
the Postoffice Department, which was quite a disap- 
pointment to the Committee as they had hoped to 
distribute them through the local committees with the 
aid of the Police Department, and the members feel 
that had they been allowed to do so the results would 
have been immediate and of a more satisfactory na- 
ture. The women of Delaware have worked suc- 
cessfully along various lines and have patriotically 
answered every call. 

District of Columbia. While the leaders in the 
defense work of the District of Columbia are modest in 
their statement of their accomplishments, it is not 
unfair to say that the women of the National Capital 
have set a fine example in the enthusiasm and con- 
stancy with which they have set about work in every 
field. The first ladies of the land, members of the 

238 



3 



STATE ORGANIZATIONS 

President's own household, wives of the cabinet mem- 
bers, senators and the official family generally 
through the long summer months kept faithfully at 
their tasks. Mrs. Wilson and Miss Helen Bones, 
niece of the President, have personally contributed 
numbers of articles made by their own hands to the 
Ked Cross. Mrs. Marshall, wife of the Vice-Pres- 
ident, is president of an organization known as 
*' Ladies of the Senate," which is composed of the 
wives of the cabinet members and senators. These 
ladies meet every Tuesday morning and work for 
the Red Cross. Their annual dues provide a nice 
sum which is devoted to some specific relief work. 
All social functions, with exception of the formal 
state affairs given for official visitors, have practically 
been discontinued, and even the state functions are 
characterized by extreme simplicity. 

In practically all of the government departments 
employees have been organized for systematic war 
work. As soon as war was declared Mrs. Franklin K. 
Lane, wife of the Secretary of the Interior, called to- 
gether the wives of the bureau chiefs and organized 
the Interior Department for war work. The growth 
of the organization has been phenomenal and it now 
has members not only in Washington but in the field 
service of the department. Alaska contributed $7,000 
and made possible a gift of eight beds, in addition to 
eight previously given, to the Washington ward of the 
Neuilly Hospital in France. Indians of the different 
reservations gave a beautiful collection of baskets the 
sale of which brought $1,150. Mrs. Lane's Committee 
is composed of Mrs. Alex T.Vogelsang, wife of First 
Asst. Secretary of the Interior ; Mrs. Stephen Mather, 

239 



AMERICAN WOMEN AND THE WORLD WAR 

wife of Director of Parks; Mrs. E. C. Bradley, wife 
of Asst. to the Secretary; Mrs. Lathrop Brown; Mrs. 
Van H. Manning, wife of Director of Bureau of Mines ; 
Mrs. Gaylord M. Saltzgaber, wife of Commissioner of 
Pensions; Mrs. E. C. Tieman, wife of Asst. Commis- 
sioner of Pensions; Mrs. Cato Sells, wife of Commis- 
sioner of Indian Affairs ; Mrs. Edgar B. Merritt, wife 
of Asst. Commissioner of Indian Affairs ; Mrs. James 
T. Newton, wife of Commissioner of Patents; Mrs. 
Philander P. Claxton, wife of Commissioner of Educa- 
tion; Mrs. William R. King, wife of Chief Counsel of 
Reclamation Service; Mrs. George Otis Smith, wife of 
Director of Geological Survey; Mrs. Clay Tallman, 
wife of Commissioner of General Land Office, Mrs. 
Morrelle C. Bruce, wife of Assistant Commissioner of 
the General Land Office. 

The District of Columbia Chapter of the Red Cross 
is a model for the whole nation and a record of its 
achievements would in itself make an interesting 
volume. 

The principal functions of the Woman's Division 
of the District of Columbia Council of National De- 
fense since its organization in June have been the 
promotion of the food conservation campaign in July, 
assisting in floating the Liberty Loan, in October, 
and assisting the army of clerks and other employees, 
who have added a third to Washington's population 
since April, 1917, to find places to live and eat. 

The food conservation campaign was carried on by 
means of meetings held in the different public schools 
where women were asked to sign the food cards, and 
in some cases demonstrations were given in domestic 
economy. Also, canning was carried on all summer 

240 



STATE ORGANIZATIONS 

in a specially equipped kitchen, the equipment being 
the gift of Mrs. Charles W. Wetmore, chairman of 
the Food Conservation and Production Department. 
This kitchen was located in a central public school 
and was very popular. Both colored and white can- 
ners brought their fruit and vegetables and canned 
them in the kitchen under the supervision of experts. 

This work was carried on in a modified form 
during the winter in a War Kitchen, located at 1510 
K Street, where daily demonstrations are given in the 
economical preparation of food. 

The Liberty Loan campaign was conducted through 
the organization of the Woman's Division, Mrs. 
Ernest Thompson-Seton being the campaign manager. 
It differed from other Liberty Loan drives in at 
least one particular. The closing day was * ' Children's 
Day'' with the slogan, *'A Mile of Nickels." The 
chairman of this day, Mrs. Ellis Logan, invited all 
the children from public and private schools, orphan 
asylums, and various institutions, and also the chil- 
dren from patriotic societies, clubs and other organ- 
izations to attend in a body at different hours of the 
day and bring their nickels, which they deposited 
in a big bank in the form of a Liberty Bell, and their 
names were inscribed on an honor roll. The money 
was to purchase Liberty Bonds, which were con- 
tributed to the Fund for the Fatherless Children of 
France, an authorized custodian of which was pres- 
ent during the day. Special features of children in 
costume, both military and historical, and children 
of well known parentage whom the public would be 
interested to see were announced through the Press to 
be in attendance at specified times. 

241 



AMERICAN WOMEN AND THE WORLD WAR 

The demand for living accommodations in Wash- 
ington during the war regime has so far exceeded the 
supply, particularly the supply appropriate to the 
young women who come from comfortable homes and 
good salaried positions to work for the Government, 
that the Woman's Division has conducted a canvass 
among club members. Daughters of the American 
Revolution, and other societies composed of women 
who are likely to have certain spare rooms in their 
houses, in an endeavor to make available this space 
which ordinarily goes for social entertaining. This 
work has been expanded and placed on a systematic 
basis. The President has set aside the sum of $1,000 
a month for the purpose of making a survey of hous- 
ing conditions and providing for the influx of workers. 

The officers are: chairman, Mrs. Archibald Hop- 
kins; vice-chairmen, Mrs. Robert Lansing; Mrs. 
Ernest Thompson-Seton, Liberty Loan; Mrs. Blaine 
Beale; Mrs. Gibson Fahenstock, Woman's Section, 
Navy League; Mrs. Charles W. Wetmore, Capital 
Garden Club; Mrs. Robert S. Chew, Evening Clinic; 
Miss Mary Gwynn, Washington Diet Kitchen; Mrs. 
William Hitz, Immigration Bureau; Mrs. G. M. 
Brumbaugh, D. A. R. ; Miss Sarah Lee ; Miss Nannie 
Burroughs, Colored Women; Mrs. F. L. Ransome, 
Housekeepers' Alliance. Executive Committee: Miss 
Alma Ruggles, Mrs. J. M. Biddle, Mrs. Garrison Mc- 
Clintock, Mrs. Frederick H. Brooke, Mrs. Walter 
Bruce Howe, Miss Edna Sheehy. Men's Commit- 
tee — chairmen: Mrs. Archibald Hopkins, Mrs. Har- 
riet Blaine Beale, Mrs. A. P. Gardner, Mrs. J. W. 
Wadsworth, Jr. ; Mrs. Louis P. Brownlow, Mrs. 
William Belden Noble, Mrs. George Howard. 

242 



STATE ORGANIZATIONS 

Florida. — Mrs. W. S. Jennings, president of the 
Florida Federation of Women's Clubs, was appointed 
temporary chairman of the Woman's Committee of 
the Council of National Defense, and immediately 
called a meeting in Jacksonville to perfect a perma- 
nent organization. There were present at this meet- 
ing: Mrs. H. H. McCreary, President U. D. C. ; Miss 
Minnie E. Neal, President W. C. T. U. ; Mrs. Arthur 
Gilkes, State Regent of D. A. R. ; Miss Agnes Harris, 
State Agent of Canning Clubs, and President Teach- 
ers' Association; Mrs. Telfair Stockton, President Co- 
lonial Dames; Mrs. W. B. Young, State Chairman 
National League for Woman's Service; Mrs. Bion 
Bamett, representing Y. W. C. A. and Red Cross; 
and several other prominent women. 

Mrs. William Hocker of Ocala, former president 
of the Florida Federation of Women's Clubs, was 
elected permanent chairman; Mrs. H. H. McCreary, 
of Gainesville, vice president ; Mrs. Telfair Stockton, 
of Jacksonville, secretary-treasurer. These officers 
together with the other state representatives of 
women's organizations constitute the Executive Com- 
mittee. 

As there was no provision made for financing the 
state organization, local committees were asked to 
contribute one dollar from each organization cooper- 
ating. 

The first step of the permanent chairman was to 
appoint a temporary chairman in all towns of more 
than five hundred inhabitants, and send to them an 
organization letter. The work was somewhat re- 
tarded as so many of the women appointed were out 
of the state for the summer and had to name sub- 

243 



AMERICAN WOMEN AND THE WORLD WAR 

stitutes, or await their return. However, in a short 
time sixty-five units had been established, with per- 
manent chairmen, besides fifteen ward units under 
Miss Meigs, chairman of the Jacksonville division, 
and about as many under Mrs. Hugh McFarlane, 
chairman of Tampa. There were also more than one 
hundred acting chairmen, many of whom later ef- 
fected permanent organizations. 

Before the Woman's Committee was organized, 
Mrs. W. S. Jennings, temporary state chairman, man- 
aged the first food conservation pledge campaign, 
through several of the women's state organizations. 
About twenty-five thousand cards were distributed. 

The first work of importance undertaken by the 
Woman's Committee has been the registration for 
service requested by the National Committee. This 
was managed by Mrs. W. B. Young of Jacksonville, 
treasurer of the General Federation of Women's 
Clubs. Mrs. Young sent a circular letter to all the 
units, explaining the purpose and value of registra- 
tion, and asked them to write for the number of 
cards desired, basing their estimate on population. 
Thirty-two thousand cards were distributed, and 
September 19, 20 and 21 named as registration days. 
There was very satisfactory response. 

Of another part of the work, Mrs. Hocker says: 

**Miss Tarbell, for her committee, asked our coop- 
eration in making public and popular the movement 
for women to carry their own purchases, and enable 
merchants to release men for service. We sent 
notice to all the units, suggesting methods of coopera- 
tion, to agree on fewer daily deliveries, and reduce 
these when possible, and to do marketing in person, 

244 



STATE ORGANIZATIONS 

and not by phone. "We also distributed 'stickers' 
with the slogan 'Women! Cooperate with Mer- 
chants. Cut down deliveries.' 

**The Committee was asked to cooperate in the 
War Library fund, and in the big Food Conservation 
drive. For this, we marshaled all our forces and 
joined with the Food Commission, State Council of 
Defense, and other agencies, in making it thorough 
and effective. 

**Each unit is composed of several organizations. 
For instance, there were forty-five different organiza- 
tions represented at the meeting to establish the Jack- 
sonville unit. 

''State organizations form the Woman's Commit- 
tee, and their presidents, or heads, together with our 
officers, constitute our Executive Board." The 
presidents of these organizations are Mrs. W. S. Jen- 
nings, Florida Federation of Women's Clubs; Mrs. 
H. H. McCreary, U. D. S.; Mrs. Telfair Stockton, 
Colonial Dames ; Mrs. W. B. Young, National Service 
League ; Mrs. Frank Stranahan, Suffrage Association ; 
Miss Minnie Neal, W. C. T. U.; Miss Agnes Ellen 
Harris, Canning Clubs; Mrs. Bion Barnett, Red 
Cross, Y. W. C. A. ; Miss Elsie Hoyt, Southern Asso- 
ciation College Women; Mrs. L. B. Safford, National 
Federation of Music Clubs ; Mrs. Sarah Harris, East- 
ern Star; Mrs. Arthur Gilkes, D. A. R.; Mrs. C. C. 
Bagwell, Catholic Alumnae; Mrs. Hattie Bethel, 
Pythian Sisters; Mrs. Mabel DeRyder, Woman's Re- 
lief Corps, G. A. R. ; Miss Anna Davids, Florida 
Nurses' Association; Miss Ella Rorabeck, U. S. 
Daughters 1812; Mrs. Frank E. Jennings, State 
Chairman Liberty Loan. Honorary vice-chairmen: 

245 



AMERICAN WOMEN AND THE WORLD WAR 

Mrs. W. W. Cummer; Mrs. D. U. Fletcher; Mrs. 
Frank Clark; Mrs. Sidney J. Catts, wife of the Gov- 
ernor; Mrs. D. U. Fletcher, wife of senior U. S. Sen- 
ator ; Mrs. Frank Clark, wife of senior Congressman ; 
Mrs. W. W. Cummer, philanthropist and prominent 
in women's work. 



CHAPTER XIX 

GEORGIA, IDAHO, AND ILLINOIS 

Remarkable work of Georgia women — Agricultural 
rallies prove effective — First Red Cross diet kitchen in 
South — Negro women work for negro soldiers — Idaho 
women get quick results in every undertaking — Society 
women pack prunes — Illinois fortunate in having many 
prominent women identified with defense work — Great 
work of women in Chicago. 

Georgia. In reading the story of the splendid 
work the women of the whole state of Georgia are 
doing, it is difficult to reconcile -this record of achieve- 
ment, this example of efficiency, this ideal of service, 
with newspaper stories appearing about the time the 
work was at its height announcing ''Georgia women 
plead for entrance into .the State University." 

Especial praise is due the expert publicity work 
of Miss Isma Dooley, chairman of the Publicity De- 
partment of the Woman's Committee, through whose 
untiring efforts the people of Georgia have been kept 
informed about the work of the women. 

"The story of the war work of the women of 
Georgia is a most interesting one, and the Georgia 
Division, Woman's Committee Council of Defense, is 
writing the story," says Miss Dooley. 

The Georgia Division was organized late in June, 
1917, although the war work by Georgia women has 

247 



AMERICAN WOMEN AND THE WORLD WAR 

been going on since 1914. Records thereof were in 
scattered and in unwritten form, except that of the 
work of the Georgia Federation of Women's Clubs 
along the lines of agriculture and food conservation. 

Mrs. Samuel Inman, Atlanta, appointed chairman 
of the Georgia Division, Woman's Committee Coun- 
cil of National Defense, assembled at her first meet- 
ing the heads of virtually every state organization 
of women who had added to their original work some 
form of war defense work. There were forty-three 
present. The first thing which Mrs. Inman asked of 
her central committee was that they aid her in get- 
ting records of the war defense work being done ; and 
in organizing county units in every section of the 
state. Through her Publicity Committee she issued 
weekly bulletins to the leading daily and weekly 
papers. These carried information pertaining to the 
meaning of defense work, and information was called 
for concerning work of women in organizations and 
as individuals. The response to these bulletins, to- 
gether with reports from the Central Committee and 
the chairmen of county units, is making the story of 
the work of Georgia's women in war. 

Even before the European war, the Georgia State 
College of Agriculture — a branch of the University of 
Georgia — had begun a campaign for diversified farm- 
ing. It was brought to their attention that, though 
Georgia was a rich cotton state, she had been neglect- 
ing many and varied products which her soil so easily 
produced. 

The inroads of the boll weevil, in its gradual prog- 
ress from Texas through the cotton producing section 
of the South, had been heralded by the extension 

248 



STATE ORGANIZATIONS 

workers of the College of Agriculture, and they, with 
the club women, began the campaign among men and 
women in the farming districts for diversification 
and intensive farming. Then, with the war begin- 
ning in 1914 and with Georgia's relation as a cotton 
producing state to Germany's commerce, there was 
an impetus given the agricultural campaign work. 
Mrs. Nellie Peters Black, a member of the agricul- 
tural committee of the Georgia Federation of Wom- 
en's Clubs, organized a series of agricultural rallies 
which she assembled with the aid of the club women 
in twelve congressional districts of the state. She 
invited to these rallies the experts from the College 
of Agriculture, from the various government agen- 
cies cooperating with stage agencies, and from the 
state agricultural society. The club women worked 
through the smaller rural clubs to get men and 
women to the meetings, and within six months, the 
cooperation of the club women had been asked by 
every agency for agricultural development in the 
state. 

Mrs. Black, herself the owner of a productive 
plantation, made a tour of the state, visiting the ral- 
lies held by men or women, taking the message of the 
club women. The girls' canning clubs became a part 
of the general agricultural movement, and in a year's 
time the lands hitherto producing only cotton, in 
many sections, began to show acres of foodstuffs, 
grains, etc., to bring new favor and interest to truck 
gardening, fruit raising, and especially to the peanut 
and soy bean industries. At the last two southeast- 
ern Fairs held in Atlanta, women were found to be 
largely and practically interested in stock-raising. 

249 



AMERICAN WOMEN AND THE WORLD WAR 

Even before the government called for records 
bearing upon the work of women, and before any or- 
ganization began a program for war defense work 
per se, the Georgia club women had established their 
agricultural activity under the war defense banner. 

Having held the agricultural rallies in many dis- 
tricts of the state, Mrs. Black, subsequently elected 
president of the Federation, responded to calls for 
speakers at county agricultural institutes. 

When in April the call v/as made for women to take 
up the work of Food Conservation and Home Eco- 
nomics, following the organization of the national 
movement for Food Administration, Mrs. Black and 
Mrs. Samuel Lumpkin, the latter president of the 
Woman's Department of the Southeastern Fair, es- 
tablished in the state capitol of Atlanta, an agricul- 
tural school for teaching practical methods to women 
in the matter of canning, preserving and otherwise 
consei^ng food products. 

To contribute to the program of this school came 
instructors from the United States Department of 
Agriculture, the State College of Agriculture, and 
the State Department of Agriculture, and the aver- 
age attendance at each session was from two hundred 
to two hundred and fifty. The gallery of the as- 
sembly room of the capitol was reserved for negroes. 
And they came in large numbers, every class being 
represented — from the negro professors of the seven 
colleges for negroes maintained in Atlanta, to the 
humbler individual, the negro cook, who came per- 
haps in the same automobile which brought her mis- 
tress, each wishing instruction in the way that she 
might do her bit in the war crisis. Lectures on poul- 

250 



STATE ORGANIZATIONS 

try-raising, dairying and stock-raising were included 
in the program. 

While the agricultural work was active in the 
rural districts, through the city and town clubs, the 
home garden movement had been pushed and there 
was scarcely a home in any community which did not 
have its productive garden. The school children had 
their school gardens, for which the club women gave 
prizes. The school garden movement extended to the 
vacant lot movement, when the children secured 
vacant land and planted seeds. This movement stim- 
ulated great interest and there was a vacant lot 
garden contest among the grown-ups in Atlanta and 
other cities in the state. 

Then came great interest among the women to con- 
serve the food products and the very democracy of it 
all — the rich women and poor women alike going to 
the same meeting, getting the same instruction, and 
using the same kind of cans and jars — has proved an 
influence and a force. 

A campaign for wheat conservation followed, and 
from the College of Agriculture, through lectures 
and through the federated club women, information 
and recipes have been sent out bearing upon the use 
of com meal, peanut meal, etc. 

The club women of Georgia have done a tremen- 
dous amount of Red Cross work, both as individual 
members and through Red Cross committees included 
in the work of local clubs. In those cities where 
there have been National Guard centralization camps, 
and the cantonments for the National Army, the club 
women have worked in social service committees. At 
the Officers' Training Camp at Fort McPherson, the 

251 






AMERICAN WOMEN AND THE WORLD WAR 

club women of Atlanta furnished programs of music 
and the drama, to which local artists generously 
contributed their services. The same work was done 
at Camp Wheeler, Macon, and Camp Gordon, Atlan- 
ta, where forty thousand men were in training. 

In view of the fact that women are being called 
upon more and more to fill men's places, leaders of 
the Georgia Federation of Women's Clubs, and of 
the Georgia Division, Council of National Defense, 
worked for the passage of a bill which was introduced 
in the General Assembly of Georgia asking that the 
junior, senior and post-graduate classes of the Uni- 
versity of Georgia be opened to women. The same 
committee have endorsed and warmly encouraged the 
attendance of women upon the night classes of the 
School of Commerce of the Georgia School of Tech- 
nology. 

Mrs. Inman, representing the Council of Defense 
has united with the federated club women, to aid 
the negro women in many quarters of the state, the 
negro women working most intelligently in the 
Georgia Federation of Colored Women's Clubs. 

The work of the negro women had been along 
more strictly agricultural lines, but they organized 
to do social service work in the vicinities where the 
Military Cantonments were established. In Atlanta, 
Augusta and other places, this work was carried on 
by the colored women, aided still by the club women, 
by the Council of National Defense, and by the War 
Council of the Young Women's Christian Associa- 
tion. 

In Camp Gordon, at Atlanta, the four thousand 
negro soldiers offered a broad field of work for the 

252 



STATE ORGANIZATIONS 

representative negroes of Atlanta, among the men and 
women, and they did it earnestly and intelligently. 

The Georgia Society of Colonial Dames, and the 
Daughters of the American Eevolution and Daughters 
of the Confederacy have worked energetically for war 
relief, in affiliation with the Red Cross, and have met 
every call which has been issued by the Red Cross 
Society to the women of Georgia. When the reports 
are made by the woman's societies in the church it 
will be an inspiring one, there being auxiliaries to the 
Red Cross in nearly every community big enough to 
own a church in which a woman's missionary or aid 
society exists. 

The first Red Cross Diet Kitchen in the South was 
that established in Atlanta by the Junior League, an 
organization of young society girls. In connection 
with the diet kitchen, cooking classes have been or- 
ganized, all under the direction of the Red Cross. 

In Atlanta there is an active and far-reaching work 
being done by the local branch of the National League 
for Woman's Service. They have committees on 
over-seas relief, classes in stenography and typing, 
classes in wireless, signaling and map reading, and a 
class in X-ray. They have a motor driving class, 
which did an admirable work in the disastrous fire in 
May, 1917. Under the head of Social Service, the 
National League has a bureau of information, the pur- 
pose being to find homes, lodgings and boarding-places 
for the families of the army men now in the city, and 
for the families of the men in Camp Gordon. The 
Woman's Navy League in Georgia worked for the 
soldiers on the battleship Georgia^ and met calls for 
knitted articles for other battleships. 

253 



AMERICAN WOMEN AND THE WORLD WAR 

The Atlanta branch of the War Council work of 
the Y. W. C. A. has established two departments of 
social service work in Atlanta, in a hostess house at 
Camp Gordon, and an in-town branch centrally lo- 
cated and covering the floor of a large office build- 
ing. Similar hostess houses will be built at the camps 
at Macon and Augusta. In all three cities the local 
branches of the Y. W. C. A. will cooperate directly. 
Miss Fay Kellogg, of New York, is architect for the 
several '* hostess houses'' to be built by the Y. W. C. 
A. in the southern military cantonments. 

The officers are: Honorary chairman, Mrs. Nellie 
Peters Black, Atlanta; chairman, Mrs. Samuel M. In- 
man, Atlanta; first vice-chairman, Mrs. Z. I. Fitz- 
patrick, Thomasville; second vice-chairman, Mrs. 
Isaac Minis, Savannah; third vice-chairman, Mrs. A. 
W. Van House, Rome ; corresponding secret arj^, Mrs. 
Daniel Harris, Atlanta; recording secretary, Miss 
Lucy Lester, Atlanta; treasurer, Mrs. Hugh M. Wil- 
lett, Atlanta ; chairman of Press, Miss Isma Dooly, At- 
lanta; chairman of Registration, Mrs. S. W. Foster, 
Atlanta; chairman of Compilation, Mrs. P. I. Mc- 
Govern, Atlanta. 

Idaho. The first work undertaken by the women 
of Idaho, after they were organized, was the distribu- 
tion of the food pledge cards. An interesting feature 
of this work in Idaho was the way in which women 
sought and secured the cooperation of the men of the 
cross-roads general stores and the rural mail carriers, 
in reaching the women of the rural districts. The 
workers reported that they found these men most 
cordial in their support of the plan. While few 
women in Idaho were able to register for out of state 

254 



STATE ORGANIZATIONS 

work, many of them have worked indefatigably in 
relief and other kinds of war work. 

The committee started the campaign for one 
merchant's delivery a day. The smaller towns were 
especially successful in several instances, notably 
Nam^pa, in getting a cooperative delivery. The 
merchants of Boise were not so ready to respond to 
the request of the women but persistent efforts were 
finally successful. 

The Idaho women made a definite request of every 
hotel and cafe to observe wheatless and meatless days, 
and of the bakers to bake only half the amount of 
wheat bread on Wednesday (the bakers naming the 
day). If these efforts were not entirely successful it 
was not due to the lack of interest and hard work on 
the part of the women. Mrs. E. J. Dockery, the pub- 
licity chairman, said, ''Imagine our disappointment 
to find two weeks later that but two places had lived 
up to their agreement — the Commercial Club and 
the Y. W. C. A. We told the slackers exactly what 
we thought of them and the newspapers kept the 
subject alive for us. We made the rounds regularly, 
scanned the menus closely and if we found the prom- 
ises had not been kept, we just told the newspapers, 
and they told the public. By this means we got prac- 
tically all of the men in line." 

Mrs. Dockery also gives a vivid picture of the way 
in which the women of her state went about other 
branches of war work. iShe says: *'We have done 
splendid work in food conservation. The women 
dried our delicious cherries in large numbers to send 
to the boys at the front. They are superior to the 
best raisins, and we have dried and canned until we 

255 



AMERICAN WOMEN AND THE WORLD WAR 

are worn out. In the rural communities much com- 
munity work was done through the boys' and girls' 
canning clubs. 

*'We did our spectacular work, however, when the 
call came for workers in the fruit box factory and the 
prune packing houses, when the society women, high 
school boys and girls — everybody volunteered. The 
society women decided to pack prunes and give 
wages to the Woman's Committee instead of having a 

* chain bridge' or 'chain tea,' the two methods by 
which we are raising funds. They included such 
prominent women as Mrs. W. E. Borah, wife of the 
United States Senator, bankers' wives, rich sheep 
men's wives, and others. The majority of them 
were young matrons, and imagine their chagrin when 
the owner of one of the packing houses, feeling sorry 
for the society women, who after four hours work 
had earned about thirty cents, said consolingly: 

* Never mind, ladies, you could hardly expect to make 
much at prunes ; we always try to get the young girls 
to pack prunes, and save the middle-aged women for 
packing the apples.' The women took this as a huge 
joke, and though the highest any of the women made 
the first day was eighty cents for nine hours' work, 
they were game and kept at it." 

The officers of the Idaho Woman's Committee are: 
chairman, Mrs. S. H. Hays, Boise City; vice-chair- 
man, Mrs. Calvin Cobb, Boise; second vice-chair- 
man, Mrs. Fred A. Pittenger, Boise; secretary, Mrs. 
K. I. Perky, Boise; assistant secretary, Miss Leafy E. 
Simpson, Boise; treasurer, Miss Helen Coston, Boise. 

Illinois. There is no field of war work which has 
engaged the attention of American women, in which 

256 



STATE ORGANIZATIONS 

Illinois women have not achieved conspicuous suc- 
cess. A record of the work accomplished in the city 
of Chicago alone would fill volumes and would be in- 
teresting and inspirational. 

As soon as the call came from the Women's Com- 
mittee of the Council of National Defense in Wash- 
ington, Mrs. Joseph T. Bo wen, who had been appoint- 
ed by the committee temporary state chairman for 
Illinois, called a meeting of representatives of wom- 
en's organizations in the Assembly Hall of the Fine 
Arts Building, in Chicago, where the delegates were 
guests of the Chicago Women's Club. This meeting 
was largely attended, and was full of inspiration. 
Although the work of organizing the women of Amer- 
ica for war work had scarcely begun, the record of 
that meeting shows that the speakers had a clear 
grasp of the situation, that their viewpoint was a 
national one, and that they appreciated the weight of 
the responsibility that the Government had placed on 
the shoulders of its women. 

Illinois was particularly fortunate in having 
actively enlisted in the work of taking a census Miss 
Irene Warren, one of the best known filing and in- 
dex experts in the world of women workers. Miss 
Warren developed a card index system, the value of 
which has been inestimable to the women of Illinois 
in their work of registration. Other states in which 
this phase of the work has not been thoroughly sys- 
tematized would do well to consult the Illinois women 
who did the work for that state. 

Of particular interest has been the work of Miss 
Isabelle Bevier as chairman of the Department of 
Conservation. Under Miss Bevier 's expert leader- 

257 



AMERICAN WOMEN AND THE WORLD WAR 

ship the women of Illinois have responded almost 
unanimously to the call to conserve, and while it is 
too early to give an estimate of concrete results it is 
safe to say that in no state in the Union has the work 
of conservation been conducted more intelligently and 
with better results. At the first meeting of the Illi- 
nois women held in the interest of defense work, Dr. 
Harry Ward, professor of Zoology in the University 
of Illinois, and also expert for the Bureau of Fish- 
eries, called forth from the women enthusiastic ap- 
plause when he said: *'The waste that is most con- 
spicuous in food is where women are not in charge. 
In large hotels, in any big hotel, in the city of Chica- 
go, we have heard recently of the enormous quantity 
of food that was absolutely destroyed, and we have all 
seen it. That waste and destruction does not occur 
in the kitchens of the homes where women are in 
charge. I believe that in hotels, the chefs who con- 
trol that thing are of the sex to which I belong. * * 

Illinois has been fortunate also in the choice of its 
publicity committee, with Miss Mary Waller as chair- 
man. Other members of the committee are repre- 
sentatives of six daily papers, and the committee has 
done its work in the most practical and effective way. 

From the beginning of women's defense work in 
Illinois a number of women of national prominence 
have been aetivelj^ associated with the work as volun- 
teers. These include Miss Sophronisba Breckenridge, 
of the School of Civics and Philanthropy, University 
of Chicago ; Dr. Rachelle Yarros, widely known as an 
expert in Social Hygiene, chairman of the Health and 
Recreation Division; and Mrs. Antoinette Funk, a 
member of the National Women's Committee of the 

258 



STATE ORGANIZATIONS 

Council of Defense and national chairman of the Lib- 
erty Loan Committee. 

The organization in IlUnois has been very thorough. 
The work has been done by districts as that of the 
Federated Clubs is done. In the city of Chicago 
there are ten districts. Miss Sp afford, president of 
the State Federation of Women's Clubs, has done 
exceptionally fine work in organizing the women of 
the twenty-five congressional districts. 

Mrs. Dunlap Smith as chairman of the committee 
on Home Charities has done exceptionally effective 
work, especially in coordinating the various agencies 
at work in the interest of Home Charities. One of 
the first things Mrs. Smith did was to send out a 
questionnaire to nearly two hundred local charities. 
The answers were classified and kept on file and 
formed a basis for very effective future work. A 
Bureau of Social Service was established at registra- 
tion quarters, 60 East Madison Street, where a 
trained social worker, familiar with the whole social 
fieldj is director of the volunteer service department. 

While it is impossible to discriminate or to say 
that the work of one committee has been better or- 
ganized, or has brought more results than another, it 
is probably not unfair to give especial mention to the 
work of the Committee on Courses and Instruction, 
of which Mrs. Hefferan was made chairman. Chi- 
cago's large foreign population presented one of the 
most vital problems which had to be faced by the 
women. The committee in charge of this work went 
about it with the highest degree of efficiency, and 
there has probably not been a day since war was de- 
clared that the Chicago newspapers have not carried 

259 



AMERICAN WOMEN AND THE WORLD WAR 

stories of what happened at the night schools — these 
stories being so full of human interest that they could 
not escape notice. Any woman who wished to in- 
crease her efficiency or to fit herself for work for 
which she had no training could find instruction and 
a fine spirit of encouragement to stimulate her in- 
terest. There is in fact no line of work in which the 
best training is not given. 

The first thing undertaken by the committee was 
the collection of instruction courses offered by agen- 
cies already at work, such as the Red Cross, the School 
of Domestic Science, public schools, and the School of 
Civics and Philanthropy, where they offered a special 
course in war relief work. The School of Domestic 
Science offers a course in dietetics and economical 
food cooking, and the Chicago Women's Club offered 
an excellent course in economical cooking and 
thrift. 

The public schools of Chicago did a unique bit of 
patriotic work. The Board of Education gave per- 
mission for the domestic science classes to be kept 
open during the summer, and the domestic science 
teachers' salary was paid by the Board of Education. 
Wherever as many as twenty women would enroll the 
Board of Education supplied the domestic science 
class and the domestic science teacher for a course of 
cooking and canning along the lines suggested by Mr. 
Hoover. The Board of Education also gave permis- 
sion that where as many as twenty immigrant moth- 
ers could be gathered together in a school and an 
interpreter provided, the domestic science teacher 
would give free lessons in economical cooking. The 
Immigrant Board furnished interpreters and the 

260 



STATE ORGANIZATIONS 

women interested themselves in arranging the 
groups. 

The Navy League conducted classes in motor driv- 
ing under Miss Spofford, and in a short time women 
were actually in service running from eight to ten 
cars a day. 

Too much cannot be said in praise of the Red 
Cross work in Illinois, under the chairmanship of 
Mrs. Philip Schuyler Doane. At the first meeting of 
the "Women's Defense Committee in Chicago, in June, 
1917, Mrs. Doane reported that since February more 
than eight thousand women had enrolled in Red Cross 
courses in the City of Chicago alone, and that ap- 
proximately eighteen thousand women had become in- 
terested in Red Cross work since the beginning of the 
war. 

Mrs. Russell Tyson was made chairman of the com- 
mittee on Allied Relief, which has also done superb 
work. The organizations actively enlisted in Allied 
Relief Work in Chicago include The British Isles, 
Daughters of the British Empire; Canadian Red 
Cross ; Committee for the Relief in Belgium ; A. B. F. 
B. Fund; Italian Relief; American Fund for French 
Wounded; Fatherless Children of France; Secours 
Nationale ; French Red Cross ; Children of the Fron- 
tier; American Field Ambulance Service; American 
Ambulance Hospital ; Mary Borden-Turner Hospital ; 
Appui Aux Artistes; Franco-American Committee; 
Servian Relief; Polish Relief; Russian Relief; Jap- 
anese Relief; organizations for relief in Roumania, 
Armenia, Bohemia and Slovak. 

No question growing out of the war gave more con- 
cern to the Illinois women than that concerning 

261 



AMERICAN WOMEN AND THE WORLD WAR 

women and children in industry. If this problem 
seemed to loom large and to present many complica- 
tions in Illinois that were not encountered in other 
states, that state was particularly fortunate in having 
as one of its citizens, and as an active worker in the 
Woman's Defense Committee, Mrs. Raymond Rob- 
ins, who was made chairman of the Committee on 
Women and Children in Industry. There is prob- 
ably no woman in America who was better qualified 
to act in this capacity. Mrs. Addison W. Moore was 
made chairman of the Committee on Children in In- 
dustry; Miss Jessie Binford, chairman of the Com- 
mittee on Children in Agriculture; Miss Mary Mc- 
Dowell, chairman of the Committee on Foreign Bom 
Women ; Miss Catherine Taylor, chairman of Commit- 
tee on Industrial Readjustments; Miss Edith Wyatt, 
chairman of Committee on Enforcement of Labor 
Laws. These various committees have fulfilled the 
heavy obligations imposed on them with a fine and pa- 
triotic spirit, and while the difficulties have been 
great the results have far more than compensated for 
those difficulties. 



CHAPTER XX 
INDIANA, IOWA, KANSAS AND KENTUCKY 

Registration first consideration of Indiana women — 
Market exchange to be operated permanently — Inter- 
esting things happen in Iowa — Kansas organized along 
practical lines — Women of "Blue Grass States" among 
first to report perfect and active organization — Edu- 
cational work a feature. 

Indiana. Women ^s activities in connection with 
the Indiana State Council of Defense have been va- 
ried and full of interest. The first important work 
undertaken was the enrollment of women, according 
to their experience and willingness to serve in case 
there should arise an emergency demanding women ^s 
services. Very soon after its organization the In- 
diana Women 's Committee formed a unit for knitting 
socks for soldiers, and organized the entire state, 
furnishing four thousand pairs of socks for Indiana 
soldiers in the first call ; this work has continued and 
all sorts of soldiers' comforts are included in the 
articles made. Through cooperation with the Red 
Cross the Committee established local first aid classes, 
through which hundreds of Indiana women have qual- 
ified for relief work. The Committee did valuable 
work in connection with the sale of Liberty Loan 
bonds, and later effected a cooperative plan with the 
United States government supply depot for making 
shirts for soldiers. 

263 



AMERICAN WOMEN AND THE WORLD WAR 

Indiana did her full share in food production and 
conservation, arranging demonstrations for canning 
in cooperation with the domestic science department 
of Purdue university. The Committee instructed 
thousands of Indiana women in the cold pack process, 
after securing the signatures for thousands of ''can- 
ning cards," pledging housewives to extra canning, 
etc. A market place for the surplus of fruits and 
vegetables that have been conserved in Indiana was 
planned to be operated as a permanent exchange. 

Through County Councils, Franchise Leagues, 
Federation of Clubs, etc., fifty thousand signatures 
were secured to *' Hoover cards" and aid was pledged 
in increasing this figure to one million. Many lead- 
ing women volunteered for educational work of a pa- 
triotic nature, and made themselves available for in- 
struction, addresses, etc., where such work was found 
needful and necessary. 

In many instances Indiana women cheerfully gave 
up their usual social activities in order to be available 
for Red Cross or other work for the soldiers; and al- 
most without exception, the women's clubs, as a con- 
servation measure, made the usual extravagant 
luncheons taboo. 

The women's organization cooperated with the or- 
ganizers of the United States Boys' Working- Reserve, 
believing that this increased force for productive 
labor would be of assistance in increasing the food 
supply, thus reducing the high cost of living and 
helping to meet the extraordinary demand for the 
armies of America and her allies, and the starving 
civilian population of our European allies. The 
women rendered a particularly valuable service in ex- 

264 



STATE ORGANIZATIONS 

ercising special precautions against disease and con- 
tagion, as practical conservation, and in order that 
the demand for physicians might be minimized so that 
an increased number of medical men might be re- 
leased for the federal army. These energetic and pa- 
triotic women also made possible the elimination of 
the practice of returning unsold bread, by placing 
orders far enough ahead to allow retailers to estimate 
accurately their demands. 

Mrs. Anne Studebaker Carlisle is chairman of the 
Woman's Section of the State Council of Defense, 
and chairmen of the committees are: Enrollment 
and Women's Service, Miss Julia E. Landers; Food 
Production, Mrs. Jennie M. Conrad, Conrad; Home 
Economics, Miss Mary Matthews, LaFayette; Child 
Welfare, Mrs. Albion Fellows Bacon, Evansville; 
Women in Industry, Miss Mabelle Maney, Indian- 
apolis; Health and Kecreation, Mrs. George C. Hill, 
Indianapolis; Food Conservation, Mrs. Carl G. Fish- 
er, Indianapolis; Liberty Loan, Mrs. Fred McCul- 
loch. Fort Wayne; Red Cross, Mrs. Jessie H. Stutes- 
man, Crawf ordsville ; Social Service, Miss Vida Bew- 
son, Columbus; Education, Mrs. Eliza A. Blaker, In- 
dianapolis. 

Iowa. Those charged with the task of organizing 
the Woman's Committee of the Council of National 
Defense of Iowa realized at an early date that the 
very work of organization itself might be made an 
end as well as a means, and in a large proportion of 
the counties the meetings called for forming local 
chapters were made patriotic occasions which called 
together the women of every class, race and creed. 
They were, in themselves, demonstrations of demo- 

265 



AMERICAN WOMEN AND THE WORLD WAR 

cratic feeling and patriotism which meant much to 
their communities. In many counties, patriotic 
meetings with speakers from near by cities were held 
in every school district of the county. The move- 
ment for holding the patriotic meetings has been in 
the opinion of many, the most distinctive phase of 
Iowa's work. The chairman of the Committee on 
Patriotic Meetings is Miss Alice French of Daven- 
port, better known as Octave Thanet, the novelist, 
who has devoted herself with all her resources of 
influence and wealth to this work. Miss French is 
the Regent of the Colonial Dames of Iowa and this 
patriotic society together mth the D. A. R., has been 
especially in charge of this work, the value of which 
can scarcely be estimated. Miss French has been par- 
ticularly successful in holding meetings in sections of 
the state where there is a large German population, 
having enlisted as one of her best speakers the editor 
of one of the largest German newspapers, who is aid- 
ing in setting forth the duties of the German- Ameri- 
can citizen at this time. 

Mrs. Gebhard, who is the Regent of the State D. A. 
R., has been carrying on the work of holding meetings 
in connection with the county fairs. Arrangements 
were made for patriotic rallies to be held in every 
county of the state. 

The chairman of the Committee on Education, Miss 
Leona Call, sent out an appeal to all domestic science 
teachers in the colleges and schools, to make a spe- 
cialty of teaching the preparation of the foods recom- 
mended by the Federal Food Administration and es- 
pecially that they avail themselves of the opportunity 
this will give for patriotic instruction, explaining to 

266 



STATE ORGANIZATIONS 

their pupils why these things are necessary, why our 
country is at war, the suffering in Europe, etc. It is 
believed that by this means, instruction not only in 
habits of thrift but in patriotism and loyalty to our 
government will be taken into many homes not other- 
wise accessible. 

This committee has also appealed to teachers every- 
where to give patriotic instruction and patriotic pro- 
grams in the school, using the new and modern litera- 
ture of patriotism, such as Secretary Lane's "Address 
on the Flag"; part of President Wilson's war mes- 
sage, etc. It is believed that they will thus bring 
home to the pupils and, through them to their parents, 
the fact that each one has a personal interest in this 
war. 

The chairman of the Iowa Division, Mrs. Francis 
E. Whitley, sent to every college in the state a request 
to the girls to secure from their own acquaintance, as 
many signatures as possible to the food pledge cards, 
each one writing to her own home town and giving 
thus, not only help to the campaign, but an evidence 
of her own loyal interest. She also sent a letter to 
each of the rural clubs, of which Iowa has a very large 
number, asking them not only to circulate the food 
pledge cards in their own neighborhoods, but to hold 
patriotic meetings, using the songs of our country — 
the songs which our soldiers are singing in the camps 
— and giving a distinctively patriotic tone to the gath- 
erings in their community centers. 

The Iowa Division made an especial effort to carry 
on the work of safeguarding the conditions around 
the great cantonment at Des Moines. Mrs. Harold R. 
Howells, the chairman of the Health and Recreation 

267 



AMERICAN WOMEN AND THE WORLD WAR 

Committee, with the aid of the women of the Des 
Moines unit especially cooperated with the agents sent 
out by the Committee from the War Department in 
meeting this great and imperative need. 

A letter was sent to the newspapers of every county 
in the state and to every county chairman, asking that 
the women in each locality take steps to see that no 
girl who leaves home seeking employment in Des 
Moines shall go without notifying either the local 
Woman's Committee or the Y. W. C. A., so that she 
may be met and sheltered until some suitable place 
to live can be secured. 

The Iowa Division sent an appeal to the colleges 
asking that all social functions be simplified; that 
every form of extravagance and display be eliminated 
as unsuited to a time like this; they are asked to do 
this as a patriotic offering to their country and to 
demonstrate that they share in the heroic ideals of 
their college brothers who have gone, or are going, to 
the field of battle. The students are voting to comply 
with this request, giving up *^ Junior Proms'' and 
using money for Red Cross and other patriotic work. 

Several of the local branches interested themselves 
in local community cellars, for the benefit of those 
having none. The women at one county seat gave a 
conservation festival, the proceeds of which went 
to buy sugars, jars, etc., for those who could not af- 
ford to buy them. 

In carrying on the food pledge campaign in Iowa 
it was necessary to deny frequently many stories that 
had been industriously circulated. The most com- 
mon of these was that those signing these cards will 
have their canned fruit and vegetables confiscated by 

268 



STATE ORGANIZATIONS 

the government agents. One of the cheering illustra- 
tions of genuine patriotism, however, was brought out 
by this rumor. In Webster County when the workers 
from the woman's committee was securing pledges, 
they asked one housewife for her signature and were 
surprised and touched when, after signing promptly, 
she asked very honestly if she would know when the 
man from the government was coming as she was 
canning and preserving all she could so that she 
would have her share ready. Truly this patriotic 
Scandinavian woman sets an example to some native 
Americans. 

Iowa women have helped most efficiently in promot- 
ing the Liberty Loan, especially in influencing women, 
women's organizations, Sunday Schools, young peo- 
ple 's religious societies, etc., to invest. In Dubuque a 
leaflet with questions and answers was compiled by 
the Woman's Committee canvassers. 

The officers of the Iowa Woman's Committee are: 
chairman, Mrs. Francis E. Whitley, Webster City; 
vice-chairman, Mrs. F. J. Mansfield, Burlington ; vice- 
chairman, Mrs. H. W. Spaulding, Grinnell ; secretary. 
Miss Catherine J. Mackay, Ames; treasurer, Mrs. C. 
H. Norris, Des Moines; auditor, Mrs. J. W. Watzek, 
Davenport; Registration, Mrs. C. H. Morris, Des 
Moines; Conservation, Miss Catherine J. Mackay, 
Ames ; Child Welfare, Dr. Lenna Meanes, Des Moines ; 
Education, Miss Leona Call, Webster City; Liberty 
Loan, Mrs. W. W. Marsh, Waterloo; Patriotic, Miss 
Alice French, Davenport. 

Kansas, Kansas is very fortunate in having as its 
chairman of the Woman's Committee of the Council 
of National Defense, Mrs. David W. Mulvane, of To- 

269 



AMERICAN WOMEN AND THE WORLD WAR 

peka. In organizing the state Mrs. Mulvane has fol- 
lowed the plan of having a small committee, and effi- 
ciency is the watchword of this compact and very ef- 
fective organization. The first thing done by the 
committee after it was organized was to begin a regis- 
tration of the women, and later, under Mrs. Mulvane 's 
supervision, there was a food conservation campaign. 
Kansas is organized by counties, cities, wards and pre- 
cincts. Mrs. Mulvane conceived the idea of an ** all- 
woman *s parade" in various cities of Kansas and the 
first of these was held with pronounced success in 
Topeka, preceding the meeting of the Grand Army of 
the Republic. The fine example set by the women of 
Topeka was soon followed by those of other Kansas 
cities. The Kansas newspapers have been very cor- 
dial in their support of all the undertakings of the 
Woman's Committee. The clubs of the state, in the 
main, have cooperated under the Woman 's Committee. 
Kansas has given very generously in men and money. 
A Red Cross sanitary corps of eighty men was re- 
cruited entirely in Parsons, Kansas, and this is ex- 
pressive of the patriotism of the entire state. Al- 
though Kansas was late in organizing, a great deal 
has been accomplished and emphasis is being placed 
on the ten departments of work suggested by the 
Woman's Committee. The scheme of organization is 
a sound one and there is no doubt but that Mrs. Mul- 
vane and her associates have built on a solid founda- 
tion for permanent future work. 

Kentucky. The women of the "Blue Grass State" 
had a high standard to reach in their war work, for in 
no state have the women put more enthusiasm into 
their efforts nor worked to better purpose than have 

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STATE ORGANIZATIONS 

the women in Kentucky. The clubs of the state have 
distinguished themselves in various ways and on many 
occasions. The State Suffrage Association, with such 
leaders as Miss Laura Clay and Mrs. Desha Breck- 
enridge, blazed the way for aggressive steps in the 
South for political recognition of women by securing 
for their state ''school suffrage," despite seemingly 
insurmountable difficulties. When the call from the 
National Government reached Kentucky it found the 
women of that state trained, organized, and ready for 
service. Mrs. Helen Bruce, of Louisville, Chairman 
for Kentucky, has proved herself a worthy leader of 
one of America's best trained groups of women. To 
her able leadership much of the success of the unit in 
Kentucky is due. 

The personnel of the Woman's Committee of Ken- 
tucky is in itself a guarantee of success in anything 
the Committee might undertake. Mrs. Patty B. Sem- 
ple, the vice-chairman, has been prominent in Ken- 
tucky club circles for many years and is an educator 
of note. Mrs. Richard T. Lowndes, another member 
of the Committee, is president of the State Federation 
of Women's Clubs, and Mrs. Gilmer S. Adams is 
president of the Colonial Dames of Kentucky, and 
both women are charming representatives of the ad- 
mirable type of able, high-bom southern women. 
Mrs. Richard D. Drakow was former^ president of 
an influential club and is prominent among the Jew- 
ish women of the state. The recording and corre- 
sponding secretaries, Mrs. William Gazley Hamilton 
and Mrs. Marvin Lewis, have done a great deal of 
work in organizing the state — a task that seemed at 
first almost impossible, in the face of so many diffi- 

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AMERICAN WOMEN AND THE WORLD WAR 

culties. The treasurer, Mrs. Alex. G. Barret, is an- 
other woman of unusual ability. Mrs. J. William 
Jefferson, who is chairman of Registration, is presi- 
dent of the Board of the State Home for Incurables 
and former state president of the King's Daughters. 
Mrs. Jefferson is a woman of much executive ability 
and her work has been conspicuously successful. 
Kentucky is fortunate in having as chairman of its 
Food Production and Home Economics Work Miss 
Mary E. Sweeney, Dean of the Home Economics De- 
partment of the State University at Lexington. Mrs. 
Morris Gifford, who gives part of her time to the 
State Food Administrator for Kentucky, is chairman 
for Food Administration of the Woman's Committee 
and did a highly successful work in the distribution 
of the Hoover pledges. Mrs. R. P. Halleck is chair- 
man for Women in Industry. She is president of the 
Consumer's League of Kentucky and of the City Club 
of Louisville. Mrs. Halleck has been closely asso- 
ciated with all movements in Kentucky for the better- 
ment of working conditions among women and chil- 
dren. The chairman for Child Welfare is Mrs. 
Harry Bishop, who has given her entire time for a 
number of years to the cause of young girls who pass 
through the juvenile court, and to the effort to es- 
tablish a state training school for delinquent girls. 
Mrs. Bishop has done a beautiful and commendable 
work in establishing a Patriotic League among the 
girls who are especially stirred by the presence of 
fifty thousand soldiers in cantonments near Louisville. 
Mrs. George Flournoy and Mrs. Herbert Mengel are 
joint chairmen for Education and both have ability 
that especially fits them for this work. Mrs. Mengel 

272 



STATE ORGANIZATIONS 

having been president of the Suffrage Association of 
Kentucky. Dr. Alice Pickett, a leading physician, 
is chairman for Health and Recreation, and Mrs. 
Donald McDonald for Liberty Loan, and both women 
are admirably fitted for the positions to which they 
have been appointed. Mrs. Aubrey Cassar is chair- 
man of Publicity and Mrs. Thruston Ballard, of the 
Louisville Red Cross Chapter, is chairman for Red 
Cross and Allied Relief. The honorary chairmen are 
women of distinction, Mrs. Luke P. Blackburn, Mrs. 
A. M. Harrison, and Mrs. A. 0. Stanley, wife of the 
Governor. With such a committee it goes without 
saying that Kentucky stands in the front ranks. 

The Kentucky women went about organizing the 
state systematically, appointing a woman in every 
county seat. By fall of 1917 thirty-eight counties 
had started work and the cities of Lexington, Frank- 
fort, Hopkinsville, Springfield, Ashland and Louis- 
ville had been organized. 

Food conservation work was carried on with the 
cooperation of the State Agricultural College. The 
extension worker who carried the pledge cards into the 
mountain districts reported that the women of those 
districts were much interested. She said they were 
greatly pleased that they had been included and were 
happy that there was something that they could do 
for the Government. 

Kentucky was especially well organized for canning 
and drying. One interesting experiment was tried 
with groups of girls working under the extension de- 
partment. These girls picked great quantities of wild 
blackberries, and the business men advanced the 
money for sugar, containers, etc., and gave the ser- 

273 



AMERICAN WOMEN AND THE WORLD WAR 

vices of helpers in handling and shipping the finished 
product, which was sold through the Woman's Ex- 
change. 

An interesting phase of the work in Kentucky was 
a series of patriotic meetings held in the country dis- 
tricts. These meetings were opened with canning lec- 
tures and demonstrations held in the late afternoon, 
and these were followed by speeches, patriotic sing- 
ing, drills, etc. 

The Kentucky women believe that practical training 
for young women should be extended as widely as 
possible, and they have done everything within their 
power to encourage girls to take training as nurses, 
and to learn stenography, typewriting, etc. It is 
planned to make use of the registration of the woman 
power of the state to secure women to go to county 
seats to teach various branches which might be in 
demand. 



CHAPTER XXI 

LOUISIANA, MICHIGAN AND OTHER STATES 

Louisiana governor issues proclamation making regis- 
tration of women compulsory — Defense work in Maine 
— Existing organizations in Maryland form woman's 
committee — Results amazing — Admirable plan of or- 
ganization adopted in Massachusetts — What Boston has 
done — Michigan women help save cherry crop — Way- 
side markets established — Lavish use of posters proved 
effective — Meals for soldiers. 

Louisiana. Louisiana is the only state where the 
registration of women was made compulsory. Gov- 
ernor Ruffin G. Pleasant issued a proclamation fixing 
October 17, 1917, as ''registration day in Louisiana 
for women.'' As this is the first time in the history 
of this country that such a proclamation has been 
issued, the full text of the proclamation is interesting. 
It follows : 

Whereas, by Act of Congress a Council of National 
Defense has been established in the interest of national se- 
curity and welfare; and 

Whereas, this council deems it wise and essential to se- 
cure a census of woman power of the nation — which census 
shall serve to inform the government: 

(1) as to the present state of preparedness of women 
along industrial lines; 

(2) as to the training that is desired by those wishing to 

275 



AMERICAN WOMEN AND THE WORLD WAR 

equip themselves for industrial, philanthropic, or social 
service ; 

(3) as to those who are home-makers, and who, by regis- 
tering, automatically place themselves in a position to be 
reached by the Council of National Defense when its pro- 
gram demands their cooperation; 

(4) as to actual service, volunteer or for remuneration, 
that may or may not be counted upon in time of emergency ; 
and, 

Whereas, on account of the fact that this information 
will be of great permanent value to the government, the 
Council of National Defense has asked that the aforemen- 
tioned census be taken state by state; and, 

Whereas, the legislature of the State of Louisiana has 
empowered the State Council of Defense to require such a 
registration; and. 

Whereas, the State Council of Defense had decreed and 
required that such a census be taken under the personal 
supervision of the Governor of Louisiana, 

Now therefore, I, RuFFiN G. Pleasai^t, Governor of 
the State of Louisiana, do hereby proclaim WEDNESDAY, 
Oct. 17th, 1917, as REGISTRATION DAY in the State 
of Louisiana, and do hereby require that, on the above ap- 
pointed day, every woman in Louisiana of the age of six- 
teen complete or more, shall appear at the registration 
booth in her political precinct to register such information 
as the State Council of Defense requires. 

In testimony whereof, I hereunto set my hand and 
cause to be affixed the great seal of the State of Louisiana, 
at the Capitol, in the City of Baton Rouge, on this the 
fourteenth day of September, 1917. 
Bt the Governor: 

(Signed) R. G. Pleasant,, 
(Signed) James J. Bailey, 

Secretary of State. 



276 



STATE ORGANIZATIONS 

The registration being entirely under the super- 
vision of the Governor, the entire corps of state of- 
cials actively cooperated with the Woman's Commit- 
tee. The State Food Commission also cooperated and 
registration and food pledges were signed the same 
day. The State School Board granted a holiday in 
honor of the unusual event, as the school authorities 
felt that there was urgent need of the assistance of 
the teachers, especially in the rural districts. Women 
to the number of six thousand were officially 
commissioned to conduct the registration and they 
worked in cooperation with the state Food Conser- 
vation officials and the parish Demonstration 
Agents. 

In the French sections of the state the priests ren- 
dered a valuable assistance to the women by person- 
ally appealing to their parishioners. Hand bills were 
printed in French, house to house canvass was made ; 
speeches were delivered in picture shows, school- 
houses, courthouses, churches, and city halls. Every- 
where the women met with cordial response. Even 
the negroes were quite alive to the situation, meeting 
sometimes with the white people and sometimes at the 
call of their own pastors. The Committee sought the 
cooperation of the churches of all denominations and 
letters were sent out to all pastors asking them to 
speak to their people from their pulpits. 

"If you know Louisiana," one of the Committee 
members said, ''with her marvelously beautiful tracts 
of rich but almost untouched land, her Cajan parishes, 
her natural indolence, and her reluctance to be in- 
veigled into any 'northern scheme' — above all her 
difficulty in realizing that beyond her own gorgeous 
greenness and resourcefulness there is the stark hor- 

277 



AMERICAN WOMEN AND THE WORLD WAR 

ror of war — ^you will understand the difficulties of our 
work. But in spite of these difficulties and because 
of the splendid reports coming in from our chair- 
man every day, we, in Committee headquarters, are 
feeling confident of success. ' ' 

So thoroughly were the women of Louisiana alive to 
their patriotic duty that within two months after the 
Woman's Committee began its operations every parish 
(the parishes in Louisiana correspond to counties in 
other states) with one or two exceptions, was organ- 
ized, and the fact that Louisiana swamps are not al- 
ways navigable accounts for the organizations not 
being state-wide. 

In this state the women worked very successfully 
through the congressional districts. Early in the 
work one fact began to shine and that was that the 
war work the women were doing was going to have 
a marvelous effect on the illiterate element of the 
population. This alone would have made every ef- 
fort more than worth while. 

It should be stated that the expense of the organi- 
zation work in Louisiana was met by voluntary con- 
tributions and the volunteer spirit has been from the 
beginning most beautiful. 

The officers are : chairman, Miss Hilda Phelps ; first 
vice-chairman, Mrs. J. D. Wilkinson; second vice- 
chairman, Mrs. James M. Thomson; secretary, Miss 
Bertha Wolbrette; treasurer, Mrs. Joseph E. Friend; 
publicity chairman, Mrs. E. W. Arny: Executive 
Committee: Mrs. W. S. Holmes, Baton Rouge; Mrs. 
H. B. Meyers, New Orleans; Mrs. W, J. O'Donnell, 
New Orleans; Mrs. Philip Werlein, New Orleans; 

278 



STATE ORGANIZATIONS 

Mrs. "William Polk, Alexandria; Mrs. A. F. Storm, 
Morgan City. 

District chairmen are: Mrs. Wm. Porteour, New 
Orleans; Mrs. A. F. Storm, Morgan City; Mrs. W. H. 
Fullilove, Jr., Shreveport; Mrs. James R. Wooten, 
Monroe; Mrs. W. S. Holmes, Baton Rouge; Mrs. H. 
B. Myers, New Orleans; Mrs. Wm. Polk, Alexan- 
dria. 

Maine. Maine is one of the states in which the new 
war emergency organizations have not been perfected 
promptly. However, the women of the state indi- 
vidually and through the clubs and other organiza- 
tions are doing their full share in war work of all 
kinds. Maine has been an especially valuable con- 
tributor to the Red Cross work and through the clubs 
has participated in all lines of defense work. It is 
to be regretted that at this writing no formal report 
of the work of the Maine women has been received at 
Washington either by the Woman's Committee or by 
the National League for Woman's Service and that, 
therefore, the report from that state must be limited 
to this brief statement. 

Maryland. The story of the war work of Mary- 
land women is one of absorbing interest. The plan 
of organization and method of operation is worthy 
of special attention and may be followed with profit 
in other states. 

The Women's Section of the Maryland Council of 
Defense was formerly called the Women's Prepared- 
ness and Survey Commission of Maryland, having 
been appointed by Governor Harrington on April 
10th, 1917, for two purposes, viz.: to consider all 
problems relating to women and their work that 

279 



AMERICAN WOMEN AND THE WORLD WAR 

might arise during the war; and to coordinate the 
work and develop the resources of the women of 
Maryland so that their efforts in war emergency work 
might result in the highest degree of efficiency. 

Twenty-six women, nearly all of whom have been 
active in movements for social and civic betterment, 
were appointed a State Commission to guide and di- 
rect the work throughout the state, and five women in 
each county were appointed a County Commission to 
carry out the plans outlined by the State Commission 
in the various counties as far as could be done. The 
work in Baltimore City, which is not located in any 
county, is directed and supervised by the main body. 
Mrs. Edward Shoemaker, of Baltimore City, was ap- 
pointed state chairman by the Governor, Mrs. Ben- 
jamin Corkran, Jr., vice-chairman, and Mrs. William 
Milnes Maloy, secretary. 

On April 12th, Mrs. Shoemaker called the first 
meeting of the State Commission, consisting of 
twenty-six women, and plans for organization and 
work were outlined. Mrs. Oscar Leser of Baltimore 
was elected treasurer, and an executive board was 
chosen consisting of the four officers and three mem- 
bers of the State Commission (Mrs. Franklin P. Cator, 
Mrs. Charles E. Ellicott and Mrs. Jacob M. Moses). 
Due to press of duties connected with the Committee 
on Recreation at Mobilization Centers, of which Mrs. 
Cator is chairman, and her connection with the Y. W. 
C. A. in Baltimore, of which she is president, she was 
forced to resign as a member of the executive board, 
and her place was filled by Mrs. William Cabell Bruce, 
of Ruxton, Baltimore County. State chairmen of 
the various committees were appointed, each being 

280 



STATE ORGANIZATIONS 

selected by reason of peculiar fitness for the work as- 
signed to her committee. 

As soon as the Governor had completed his appoint- 
ments on the county commissions, a meeting of the 
county chairmen (appointed as such by Governor 
Harrington) and the State Commission was held. 
This was on May 3rd, at which time, the plan of or- 
ganization and work as outlined was approved, and 
from that time on, work aU over the state has been 
progressing rapidly. 

All war work in Maryland is carried on in the most 
systematic way. The Executive Board of the State 
Commission meets regularly every Tuesday at 10:30 
A. M. The twenty-six members of the State Commis- 
sion meet every third Thursday in the month at 2 
p. M. and a joint meeting of the county chairmen 
and the State Commission is an all day meeting, the 
morning session lasting from 10:00 a. m. until 12:30 
p. M. and the afternoon session lasting from 2 p. M. 
until 5 p. M. Every three months, beginning with 
the first Thursday in October, a general meeting of all 
members of the Council throughout the state is held. 

The name of the Council was changed by legislature 
act to the Maryland Council of Defense in June, 1917, 
at which time the Men's Preparedness and Survey 
Commission received legislative recognition by statute 
and was styled the Maryland Council of Defense. 

Scarcely had the Women's Commission been ap- 
pointed when it was called upon by the Men's Coun- 
cil to assist in correcting, tabulating and filing the 
census returns taken in Maryland of all males over 
sixteen years. Mrs. C. Baker Clotworthy, chairman 
of the Volunteer Emergency Service Committee, was 

281 



AMERICAN WOMEN AND THE WORLD WAR 

asked to take charge of this work, and within two 
days, about two hundred volunteers had been se- 
cured. These volunteers worked in shifts of from 
fifteen to thirty-five every day for two months, under 
the personal direction of Mrs. Clotworthy, who went 
to the office of the Men's Council every day at nine 
o'clock and remained throughout the day to instruct 
the volunteers, each of whom was obliged to promise 
to devote at least four hours a week to the work be- 
fore being instructed. 

Another large piece of work carried out by means 
of the organization of the Council was the decoration 
of the places of registration on June 5th, under the 
direction of the Patriotic Education Committee and 
the Americanization Committee, with the aid of the 
Motor Messenger Service. The President 's War Mes- 
sage was distributed under the direction of the same 
committee. Two hundred and sixty thousand Hoover 
Pledges have been distributed in Maryland. 

''Our big task," said one of the Council members, 
*'is to arouse women to a sense of patriotic duty to 
work in the canneries, as well as to conserve food in 
the homes. The newspapers are very cooperative and 
have given our work much space. This work was part 
of the general plan of the Committee on Women in 
Industry which is cooperating with the Bureau of 
Eegistration and Information of the National League 
for Women's Service. In accordance with the plan 
worked out in conference with the Executive Officer 
of the Bureau, the Committee holds itself responsible 
as far as possible to secure an adequate supply of 
woman labor in industrial plants holding Government 
contracts. By way of preparation for this work, a 

282 



STATE ORGANIZATIONS 

survey has been undertaken for the purpose of lo- 
cating industries in which there may be an over sup- 
ply of woman labor. The object of this survey is to 
place us in a position to transfer women from one 
industry to another whenever this is possible." 

In order to encourage women to conserve food by 
means of canning, etc., the Home Economics Commit- 
tee secured the services of an expert supplied by the 
Maryland Agricultural College, and she has from 
time to time formed classes in the city of Baltimore, 
where women may bring vegetables and can them 
under her direction. A demonstration agent is also 
supplied to each county in the state. So as to reach 
more women than could be gotten to the classes es- 
tablished by the expert in Baltimore City, the women 
published a notice in the newspapers, that instruction 
would be given in canning and drying vegetables, 
either by telephone from our headquarters, or in the 
housekeeper's home. This stimulated interest greatly 
and the expert Home Demonstration Agent has all she 
can do to give the information requested concerning 
the canning of fruits and vegetables. 

In addition to the activities outlined above the 
women of Maryland have done a great deal of Red 
Cross Work. 

The War Emergency Work in Baltimore is espe- 
cially interesting. The Home Garden Committee had 
been interested in gardens of all kinds in Baltimore 
for some years, and since its organization six years 
ago, has been a committee under the Women's Civic 
League. When Governor Harrington of Maryland 
appointed the Women's Preparedness and Survey 
Commission (Maryland being the first state to have 

283 



AMERICAN WOMEN AND THE WORLD WAR 

such a commission with both men's and women's 
sections) the chairman of the Home Garden Commit- 
tee was made a member and the work taken over un- 
der the new name of Food Production Committee of 
the Women's Preparedness and Survey Commission. 
Later the Commission became the Maryland Council 
of Defense — Woman's Section, a branch of the na- 
tional organization. 

A local newspaper has been offering cash prizes for 
the best back yard gardens for the last eight years. 
This year the prizes were offered only for vegetables 
and the work so greatly stimulated that the contest 
was closed when the number reached fifteen thousand. 

Twenty-five vacant lots, the use of which was do- 
nated by the owners, were plowed and fenced by 
the committee. Street dirt for fertilizers was given 
by the Street Cleaning Department. The lots were 
divided into about an eighth of an acre plots, which 
were worked by families in the neighborhood, each 
family paying one dollar nominal rent — some families 
taking several plots. Each lot constitutes a com- 
munity farm — several of which had flag raising with 
prominent citizens (members representing other edu- 
cational and patriotic organizations), as speakers. 
Most of the gardeners have availed themselves of the 
lessons at the local canning centers. 

Children's gardens are in all the city parks worked 
in cooperation with the Playgrounds Association. 
The children gardeners regularly harvest their Sun- 
day dinners; one child had sufficient vegetables for a 
family of nine. In 1917 two hundred and eighty-six 
children had park and playground gardens. 

The School Board has cooperated with the commit- 

284 



STATE ORGANIZATIONS 

tee, and there were thirteen school gardens, containing 
total number of five hundred and ninety-five indi- 
vidual gardens. The largest garden being that at the 
Louisa Alcott school, which has one hundred plots, 
eighteen feet square. One little nine-year-old girl by 
her indefatigable efforts has been an inspiration to 
the other little gardeners. 

Eight gardens in the various institutions — orphan 
asylums, old men's homes, girls' homes and so forth, 
also worked under the committee supervision. 

Some results : 

Increase in the neighborhood and civic pride 

Hearty spirit of cooperation 

Desire for more efficiency 

Practically no vandalism 

Increased food in congested districts 

Each gardener contributed some of his products to 
a stall at the Community Market of Baltimore for an 
exhibition and sale, proceeds to be used in starting 
new gardens for the next year. 

The department chairmen for Maryland are: Miss 
Kate McLane; Mrs. William Reed; Mrs. E. H. Worth- 
ington; Mrs. Frances Sanderson; Miss Sallie R. Car- 
ter; Mrs. Charles E. Ellicott; Miss Anne Graeme 
Turnbull; Mrs. Jacob M. Moses; Mrs. Frances T. 
Redwood ; Mrs. Julius Freeman ; Mrs. B. W. Corkran, 
Jr.; Mrs. C. Baker Clotworth; Dr. Anna Abercrom- 
bie; Mrs. Franklin P. Cator. 

Maryland women have not overlooked the colored 
women in their plans. The work of this Committee 
is carried on entirely through colored organizations, 
which undertake all lines of war emergency work that 

285 



AMERICAN WOMEN AND THE WORLD WAR 

they are willing to perform. A member of the Com- 
mission is chairman of this Committee and representa- 
tives from the colored organizations serve on the 
Committee. 

Massachusetts. The plan followed by the women in 
Massachusetts is a most admirable one and has proved 
thoroughly workable. The Woman's Committee has 
worked from the beginning in close cooperation with 
the Public Safety Commission of Massachusetts and 
has offices in the quarters of that organization at the 
State House. As is usual when the Woman's Com- 
mittee is closely linked with an existing strong organi- 
zation, much has been accomplished. Monthly con- 
ferences of women representing organizations and in- 
dividual women are held. At these meetings reports 
of the work of all departments is given as to the 
best method of procedure along all lines. Naturally 
much inspiration and information is exchanged and 
practical results are attained. These meetings have 
been largely attended and vitally interesting. Prac- 
tically every city and town in the state has a chair- 
man who sees that the plans of the central committee 
are carried out in her own home town. Another fea- 
ture of the work that has made for success is the fine 
spirit of cooperation that is broadly manifested. 
Practically every woman's organization in the state, 
according to the chairman's report, is cooperating to 
do work required in order that duplication may be 
avoided. 

The women did valuable work in cooperation with 
the State Food Administration in the drive of Sep- 
tember, 1917, and during that month letters were sent 
out broadly to the women of the state. Request was 

286 



STATE ORGANIZATIONS 

made that the people of Massachusetts eliminate the 
use of white bread for two days each week. Two 
weeks after the letter was sent out reports were re- 
ceived and the results were highly satisfactory to the 
food administration. The custom of eliminating 
white bread for two days a week in Massachusetts will 
continue indefinitely. 

A great deal of valuable work was done in connec- 
tion with the boys in Camp Devens, at Ayer, Massa- 
chusetts, in cooperation with the Travelers' Aid So- 
ciety. Prizes were offered for "War Time Cookery" 
in connection with the state and county fairs, the 
work being under direction of Mrs. L. A. Frothing- 
ham, of North Easton. A movement was started to 
encourage women to make their own soap, "war 
bread" and "war cake," and receipts for these were 
inserted in the local papers of the state. A number 
of fish recipes were also included and the use of fish 
instead of meat requested. Equally effective work 
has been done for the Liberty Loan and in the interest 
of child welfare. Young people have been system- 
atically encouraged to take training for some useful 
pursuit. Red Cross work was greatly intensified. 

Boston has cause to be proud of the special train- 
ing her institutions have offered for special training 
for the men and women of New England in the na- 
tional crisis. Military authorities of this country and 
Europe outlined the courses in Harvard's military 
camp. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology 
and the Tufts School of Engineering have done their 
part in war training. Secretary T. Lawrence Davis, 
the organizer and director of Boston University's war 
emergency courses, placed before Secretary of the In- 

287 



AMERICAN WOMEN AND THE WORLD WAR 

terior, Mr. Redfield, his plans for a course in intensive 
business training for women, to meet the demand for 
trained women in business. The approval of the De- 
partment of the Interior was instantaneous. These 
courses offered by the Boston University are free, ex- 
cept for a nominal charge for text books and supplies. 

Prominent educators and business men and women 
have volunteered their services and their efforts will 
result in equipping hundreds of young women for po- 
sitions in the business world. The courses cover a 
period of eight weeks. 

The officers of the Massachusetts Woman's Commit- 
tee are: Mrs. Nathaniel Thayer, chairman; vice- 
chairmen, Mrs. Herbert J. Gurney, Mrs. A. C. Rat- 
shesky, Mrs. Michael M. Cunniff, Mrs. Frank D. Elli- 
son, Miss Anna T. Bowen; secretary and treasurer, 
Mrs. William W. Taff. 

Michigan, On March 27, 1917, a number of women, 
heads of prominent women's organizations of the state 
of Michigan, met in Lansing to consider the forma- 
tion of a Woman's Committee which would weld to- 
gether the women of the state and take up various 
forms of patriotic service. Eev. Caroline Bartlett 
Crane, LL. D., was elected chairman, and the com- 
mittee was named the Michigan Woman's Committee 
of Patriotic Service. In May, Dr. Crane was ap- 
pointed by Dr. Anna Howard Shaw, chairman of the 
Woman's Committee of Michigan Council of National 
Defense, and the former organization was at once 
merged in this permanent committee of the Woman's 
Committee, Michigan Division, Council of National 
Defense. 

Dr. Crane, realizing the need of placing at once 

288 



STATE ORGANIZATIONS 

special emphasis upon food production, immediately 
laid plans to aid the farmers of the state in testing 
seed corn and removing smut from oats. It being 
almost impossible to secure seed potatoes, some twelve 
hundred bushels of potatoes were purchased by Dr. 
Crane and sold at cost price to the farmers in Kala- 
mazoo and neighboring counties. 

Special features of work during the summer months 
were the Hoover Pledge drive and the safeguarding 
of every possible avenue for food conservation. High 
school brigades were mustered to save the cherry crop, 
clearing houses established in different cities for the 
sale of the surplus crops, and the exchange of labor, 
glass jars, etc. Thousands of canning demonstrations 
were held in the state. At the suggestion of the 
Woman's Committee, many farmers established way- 
side markets by their farm homes, thus disposing of 
vegetables and fruits to automobile tourists. 

In response to a call from the head of the Michigan 
Board of the American Red Cross, in September Mrs. 
Crane sent out a letter to all local chairmen, eisking 
that a special effort be made to interest aged people, 
women in institutions, and others who had not been 
reached by the Red Cross, in knitting. Many and 
unexpected responses came to this appeal. Teachers 
in high schools asked for instructions, that the high 
school pupils might knit; Campfire Girls and troops 
of Boy Scouts took up the work; firemen were to be 
seen at their knitting; while from all over the state 
the unfortunate ones in institutions were doing their 
*'bit" for their country. 

Michigan believes in a lavish use of printers' ink. 
Ten thousand posters have been placed throughout 

289 



AMERICAN WOMEN AND THE WORLD WAR' 

the state in a ''Cut Down Deliveries" campaign. 
Daily news service is furnished sixty daily papers, 
and special feature and Sunday stories are sent out. 

In different sections of the state effective work has 
been carried on along unusual and novel lines. At 
Grand Rapids eight hundred soldiers were fed for 
four weeks by the local unit of the Woman's Commit- 
tee, Council of National Defense, these meals costing 
twenty-five cents each and giving perfect satisfaction. 
Two thousand dollars was thus saved, which was ex- 
pended for extra comforts for the soldiers. 

The Muskegon Unit gave a big patriotic pageant, 
"The Building of the Nation." In addition to af- 
fording a patriotic entertainment which was thor- 
oughly constructive, through the participation of the 
children of all nationalities represented in the com- 
munity, a splendid work of Americanization was be- 
gun. With the heartiest approval of their priest, 
and the most genuine enthusiasm on the part of the 
little folks, the Polish children gave one of their na- 
tional dances. 

The Saginaw Unit of the Woman's Committee, 
Council of National Defense, solved the problem of 
Food Marketing through the medium of the park 
market. In one of the city's parks the women opened 
a market, to which farmers and truck gardeners 
brought their produce. 

Throughout the state work along the various de- 
partment lines has been emphasized, Mrs. 0. H. Clark, 
chairman of Women in Industry, securing a volunteer 
factory inspector in each of the eighty-three counties 
of the state. 

The Department of Food Administration has as its 

290 



STATE ORGANIZATIONS 

head Miss Georgia L. WMte, Dean of Home Econom- 
ics of Michigan Agricultural College. Valuable 
emergency courses in the latest methods of food con- 
servation were held at the College, and hundreds of 
teachers went abroad over the state to give demon- 
strations. Menus for meatless and wheatless days 
were prepared, and suggestions for the help of women 
to keep all the Hoover commandments were sent out. 

Mrs. R. H. Ashbaugh of Detroit, chairman for 
Michigan of the Woman's Liberty Loan committee 
of the Treasury Department, and also chairman of 
the Liberty Loan committee of the Woman's Com- 
mittee, Michigan Division, Council of National De- 
fense, appointed leading and able women as chair- 
men in every county of the state. 

The Woman's Committee, Council of National De- 
fense, appropriated $500 to assist the nurses of the 
state in making a special survey of nursing and hos- 
pital resources of the state for the service of both the 
army and civilian population. 

The Woman's Committee, through local committees 
at Battle Creek, Kalamazoo, and other near points, 
doing special work for the boys at Camp Custer. 
Churches were opened as club houses; two evenings 
a week open house is held at the various lodges of the 
city; special services for the soldiers Sunday after- 
noon are followed by informal suppers; permanent 
home committees have been organized to furnish lists 
of rooms and houses to men, their families and friends, 
and to invite Camp Custer men to the city's home 
for Sunday dinners; and committees have also been 
organized to mend for the soldiers. 

A thorough survey of cities and towns was taken 

291 



AMERICAN WOMEN AND THE WORLD WAR 

prior to the registration of the woman power of the 
state, that the Woman's Committee might know the 
agencies for good or bad, employment conditions, 
status of charities, etc. 

In 190 cities and towns fully officered organiza- 
tions have already been established, and many town- 
ship committees consisting of chairman and secretary 
have been appointed. Fifty-three state-wide organi- 
zations are now affiliated with the Woman's Commit- 
tee, Michigan Division, Council of National Defense. 

Headquarters have been established in Kalamazoo, 
where on the first floor of a business block on one of 
the city 's main streets, the passers-by may see exhibits 
of defense work, the newest posters, and read the 
latest war bulletins. 

Dr. Crane is frequently in the field addressing con- 
ferences, federations, and other large bodies on de- 
fense work, and her addresses are widely quoted by 
the newspapers of the state. 

In July, Governor Albert E. Sleeper named a 
woman's committee on War Preparedness, appointing 
Dr. Caroline Bartlett Crane chairman, who with six 
other members serves as an intermediary between the 
Michigan War Preparedness Board and the Woman's 
Committee, Michigan Division, Council of National 
Defense; the War Preparedness Board making an 
appropriation of $7,000 to this work. 

Officers and Members of the Woman's Committee 
on War Preparedness are: chairman, Mrs. Caroline 
Bartlett Crane, Kalamazoo; vice-chairman, Mrs. 0. 
H. Clark, Kalamazoo; treasurer, Mrs. Frances E. 
Burns, St. Louis; members: Mrs. Florence I. Bulson, 
Jackson; Mrs. Georgia L. White, East Lansing; Mrs. 

292 



STATE ORGANIZATIONS 

G. Edgar Allen, Detroit ; Mrs. Emma L. Uren, Hough- 
ton ; secretary, Mrs. Clay H. Hollister, Grand Rapids. 
Executive Board, "Woman's Committee, Michigan 
Division, Council of National Defense: chairman, 
Mrs. Caroline Barlett Crane; honorary chairman, 
Mrs. Albert E. Sleeper; 1st vice-chairman, Mrs. 0. H. 
Clark; 2nd vice-chairman, Mrs. Florence I. Bulson; 
3d vice-chairman, Mrs. Ida M. Hume; 4th vice-chair- 
man, Mrs. G. Edgar Allen; 5th vice-chairman, Miss 
Georgia L. White ; 6th vice-chairman, Mrs. Emma L. 
Uren; secretary, Mrs. Clay H. Hollister; correspond- 
ing secretary, Miss Bina M. West, Port Huron ; treas- 
urer, Mrs. Frances E. Bums. 



CHAPTER XXII 

MINNESOTA, MISSISSIPPI, MISSOURI, NEBRASKA 
AND NEVADA 

Minnesota women cooperate with Public Safety Com- 
mission — Perfect coordination in Mississippi — Thirty 
women's organizations unite in war work — "One can for 
the Government" from every woman — ^Missouri adopts 
unique method of food conservation campaign — Wom- 
an's patriotic special train — What the women of Mon- 
tana are doing — Nebraska early in the field with com- 
plete organization — Registration accomplished in one 
day — "Drying and Canning Week'' in Omaha — ^Nevada 
women have various activities. 

Minnesota. The women of Minnesota have done 
so much definitely planned and well executed work 
that it is difficult to say what has been their most 
sucessful branch of war work. Under the able chair- 
manship of Mrs. Thomas G. Winter, of Minneapolis, 
the organization work and the evident spirit of co- 
ordination and cooperation is certainly worthy of 
special mention. 

In Minnesota the Safety Commission, authorized by 
the legislature, with very wide emergency powers and 
an appropriation of $1,000,000, antedated the Council 
of Defense. It appointed a Woman's Auxiliary, of 
which Mrs. Winter was made chairman. Later came 
a similar appointment from the Woman's Committee 
of the National Council of Defense. It was then pos- 

294 



STATE ORGANIZATIONS 

sible to combine the two committees, which was done 
by the local council (composed of Presidents of state- 
wide organizations) voting to accept the Safety Com- 
mittee as their executive committee. 

The state was then organized, first by congressional 
districts and then by counties. An unusual and most 
helpful act on the part of the state Safety Commis- 
sion was the calling of the entire force of county 
chairmen to a conference at the state Capitol, paying 
their expenses and giving the House of Representa- 
tives for the meeting place. This opportunity for 
full discussion and contact was a tremendous im- 
petus to the work. The conference ended by a half 
day's session at the Farm School of the University, 
where Miss Berry, chairman of Conservation, who 
was already a member of Mr. Hoover's advisory 
Committee, gave a full demonstration of the plans 
of the then non-appointed Food Administration, and 
a "war luncheon." 

The women's first big campaign was, of course, for 
the signing of the Hoover pledges. In an agricul- 
tural state, with no large cities except St. Paul and 
Minneapolis, this involved long drives in rural com- 
munities. Inevitably the food campaign involved a 
patriotic one. "The foreign population is domi- 
nantly Germian," said Mrs. Winter, "and there are 
communities where English is a foreign language. 
Their first feeling was naturally one of horror and 
protest against the war, but quiet unexcited educa- 
tional work has already done much. The country 
work has enabled us to make a quite accurate survey 
of all disloyal groups, among whom more work must 
be done. This formed the second big work." 

295 



AMERICAN WOMEN AND THE WORLD WAR 

Later Minnesota initiated a remarkably fine piece of 
cooperative work. A central state committee has 
been formed consisting of Mrs. "Winter as chairman, 
the state superintendent of schools, a member of the 
Safety Commission and the food administrator ap- 
pointed by Mr. Hoover. Under this committee every 
county is to have a similar committee, consisting of 
the man representative of the Safety Commission, the 
county superintendent of schools and the woman 
county chairman of defense. Several hundred school 
teachers and principals are to be brought in from all 
over the state for a kind of training camp in patriotic 
education and food conservation, so that the plan will 
ramify into every little rural school district with 
thoroughly informed and unified workers. 

Minnesota women have had demonstrations, patri- 
otic posters and distribution of thousands of copies 
of such material as the President's War Proclama- 
tion, Secretary Lane's speech, the President's reply 
to the Pope, etc., through the County Agricultural 
Fairs. Also dodgers on the ^'Hoover Pledge," and 
*'Why We Are At War," printed in various lan- 
guages and put in small stores, pool rooms and other 
places where men congregate. These are designed to 
reach those who do not read extensively. 

Wonderful things have happened in Minnesota. 
Mrs. Theo. Christianson, of Dawson, reported to the 
State Chairman that one town woman cheerfully did 
the canning for a farmer's wife. Mrs. J. T. Hale, 
of St. Paul, reports that in one town the slogan was : 
*' Don't let a fighting man carry your parcels. Save 
the man power for essential service. ' ' In one town a 
survey disclosed the fact that the sale of wheat had 

296 



STATE ORGANIZATIONS 

fallen off one third after the women's food conserva- 
tion drive and the sale of meal and non-wheat break- 
fast foods had increased enormously. In one town 
forty-seven out of fifty women signed the Hoover 
pledge cards. In another rural district town women 
are washing dishes for farm women. 

Minnesota has a Young Women's Auxiliary organ- 
ized for patriotic service, in squads of six or more. 
The State Director is Miss Eleanor Mitchell, St. 
Cloud; vice directors. Miss Lillian Winston, Minne- 
apolis; Miss Katherine Sullivan, Stillwater; Miss 
Helen Congdon, Duluth ; secretary. Miss Gladys Riley, 
St. Cloud. The special work of the organization is 
building up patriotic sentiment in their home towns, 
giving neighborhood service, assisting in food con- 
servation, organizing groups for the study of home 
nursing, and assistance in the registration of women 
for service. 

The officers of the Women's Committee of the Min- 
nesota Division Council of National Defense are: 
director, Mrs. Thomas G. Winter, Minneapolis; 1st 
vice chairman, Mrs. Cordenio Severance, Cottage 
Grove : 2nd vice chairman, Mrs. W. T. Coe, Wayzata. 
Committee chairmen: Miss Josephine T. Berry, St. 
Paul; Miss Agnes Peterson, St. Paul; Mrs. Edwin 
Stuhr, Minneapolis; Miss Annie Shelland, St. Paul; 
Mrs. Frances Buell Olson, St. Paul; Mrs. Francis A. 
Chamberlain, Minneapolis; Mrs. Elbert Carpenter, 
Minneapolis; Mrs. Walter Thorp, Minneapolis; Mrs. 
W. R. Mandigo, St. Paul; Mrs. Bertha Dahl Laws, 
Appleton; Mrs. Charles P. Noyes, St. Paul; Mrs. 
George Squires, St. Paul; Mrs. J. L. Washburn, Du- 
luth. Auxiliary Committees: Mrs. Harold Weld, 

297 



AMERICAN WOMEN AND THE WORLD WAR 

Boulevard; Dr. Auten Pine, St. Paul. Secretary, 
Miss Aimee Fisher, Minneapolis. 

Mississippi. Mississippi furnished a fine example 
of perfect coordination. All of the thirty women's 
organizations of the state have been giving their time, 
their money and themselves to aid their country since 
the entrance of the United States into the War — 
through the Woman's Committee Council of National 
Defense. The committee was organized at Jackson on 
May 24, 1917, and Mrs. Edward McGehee was elected 
permanent chairman. Every county and town in the 
state was organized and one of the first things to oc- 
cupy the attention of the women was food production 
and conservation. The Canning Clubs representing 
ten thousand women and girls under the direction of 
the County Demonstration Agents set the ball rolling 
by cultivating every waste place, backyard gardens in 
the towns, and their own gardens in the rural sec- 
tions. In the rich truck growing belt of central and 
south Mississippi the women were able to save the 
waste produce that had formerly rotted in the fields 
before it could be rushed to the overcrowded markets, 
or canneries. 

Every woman in the state has pledged *'One can 
for the Government" from her own pantry. This 
food will be collected by the State Agent of Food 
Conservation, and placed at the disposal of the Gov- 
ernment to be used where it is most needed. The 
first Hoover pledge cards were signed through the 
same agency, and all counties were enthusiastically 
ready for the *' Clean Up" campaign in signing the 
second cards sent out. 

The registration of women took place in the week 

298 



STATE ORGANIZATIONS 

of September 14, 1917. The Governor issued a proc- 
lamation setting aside this day as Woman's Service 
day — when a great drive was made to raise funds for 
the registration. The week was a great success, all 
organizations giving their assistance in the work. 
The negro women were registered, and took great 
pride and pleasure in this as well as the Food Cam- 
paign. They had different polling places — but 
worked under the instructions of the club women. 

The women have been enthusiastic workers in the 
Red Cross, and even the little rural towns have their 
auxiliaries or chapters. Mrs. McGehee has worked 
faithfully to give every assistance to the Gulf Division 
of the Red Cross. The Liberty Loan and the War 
Library Fund have both received enthusiastic sup- 
port from the Mississippi women. 

At Jackson and Hattiesburg, where Camp Jackson 
and Camp Shelby are located, the women have done 
everything in their power to help make camp life 
clean, wholesome and pleasant for the boys in train- 
ing. In all urban and rural communities the women 
are maintaining a high standard for the civic pride, 
through their work in the interest of public health, 
and moral and spiritual forces. Because of a cam- 
paign in the interest of the Child Labor Law the 
public schools in Mississippi had the largest attend- 
ance in the history of the state, in the fall of 1917. 
The women's clubs took up the study of pan- Ameri- 
canism, democracy, world-reorganization and kindred 
topics, showing that the women of the fair Magnolia 
State are looking out beyond the old dried-up shell of 
indifference and lethargy where habit and tradition 
have held her for so long, and ang making of them- 

299 



AMERICAN WOMEN AND THE WORLD WAR 

selves real and potent factors in the Nation's crisis, 
and preparing themselves to do citizen's duty. 

Headquarters of the Woman's Committee are at the 
Industrial Institute and College at Columbus, where 
a complete office equipment was donated. 

The officers are: chairman, Mrs. Edward McGehee, 
Como; vice-chairman, Mrs. H. L. Quinn, West Point; 
secretary, Miss Annie Caulfield, Columbus; treasurer, 
Mrs. Robert Mimms, Jackson. 

Missouri. Missouri adopted a unique and strik- 
ingly successful method of conducting its food con- 
servation campaign. This was by means of a 
** Woman's Patriotic Service Special" train which 
carried the gospel of food conservation directly to 
2,500 women, according to the official report. The 
special was sent out by the Women's Committee on 
Food Conservation in cooperation with the Missouri- 
Pacific Railway, with the object of explaining the cold 
pack method of canning and drying fruit and vege- 
tables to the women living in the cities and towns 
along that railroad. Representatives of the Women 's 
Committee of the Council of National Defense and of 
the Red Cross also were guests on the special. Their 
duty was to outline the work of these two organiza- 
tions to the women in the towns visited. Mrs. George 
Gillhorn, in conference with Mr. Benjamin F. Bush, 
President of the Missouri-Pacific Railroad, arranged 
for the trip and the railroad placed a private car at 
the disposal of the women. At each of the twelve 
places visited the special was sidetracked, and the St. 
Louis women held patriotic meetings and gave can- 
ning and drying demonstrations. 

According to the chairman's report, everywhere 

300 



STATE ORGANIZATIONS 

the special stopped the car was received by a delega- 
tion of patriotic citizens headed by the mayor. At 
every city local organizations were established of the 
Red Cross, The Women's Council of National De- 
fense and the Food Conservation Committee. 

The St. Louis women who made the trip on the first 
** Patriotic Special" were Mesdames John G. Thom- 
son and Robert Terry of the Pood Conservation Com- 
mittee; Mrs. Norman Windsor and Miss Elizabeth 
Cueny of the Women's Council of National Defense; 
Mrs. Edmund F. Brown of the Red Cross ; Mrs. Wal- 
ter McNabb Miller, Columbia, Mo., and Miss Bab Bell, 
head of the Extension Department of the Home Eco- 
nomics Section of the University of Missouri. 

Mrs. B. F. Bush, chairman of the Woman's Com- 
mittee of the Council of National Defense for Mis- 
souri, was also appointed by the Governor a member 
of the State Council of Defense. In fact, in every 
instance, the county chairman is a member of the 
County Council of Defense unit, thereby forming a 
connecting link between the men's work and that of 
the women. *'This close cooperation," says one of 
the executive officers, *'is absolutely necessary in or- 
der that the work may be carried on successfully." 

Missouri is well organized, complete working or- 
ganizations having been completed in 106 of the 114 
counties and in 375 towns, by the end of the summer 
of 1917. July 28 was set aside as *' Patriotic Day" 
for Missouri and so proclaimed by the Governor. On 
this day the campaign for the Hoover pledge cards 
was conducted and the registration of women was 
made. In all departments Missouri women are work- 
ing with pronounced success. 

301 



AMERICAN WOMEN AND THE WORLD WAE 

The plan of organization in this state is worthy of 
especial study by those states who may still be in the 
process of organization. The state was divided into 
nine districts, with a vice chairman for each district. 
The 114 counties in Missouri have each a county chair- 
man who reports to the vice chairman of her district. 
In the majority of cases this county chairman is also 
a member of the County Committee of the Council 
of Defense. Each of the large cities and towns 
throughout the state has its chairman and working 
units to look after the different departments of the 
work of the Woman's Committee in exactly the same 
way as does the state body. 

The larger cities make their weekly report direct 
to the vice chairman of their district, and also to the 
county chairman ; the townships or towns make report 
to the county chairmen, each of whom in turn reports 
to the vice chairman in her district. The nine vice 
chairmen, all members of the Executive Board, report 
to the state chairman once each week. 

The state chairman or chairman on organization 
sends frequent and full reports to the nine vice chair- 
men in the districts, and to the county, township and 
town chairmen of the activities of the several depart- 
ments, the Speakers' Bureau, Publicity Committee, 
Courses on Instruction, etc. 

Just as presidents of all women's state organiza- 
tions become members of the Advisory Council of the 
state body, so do presidents of city and town organiza- 
tions form an advisory board of the city and town 
units of the Woman's Committee. 

*'No city, town or county unit shall initiate any 
measure contrary to the State policy that shall be- 

302 



STATE ORGANIZATIONS 

come permanently operative until submitted to the 
Executive Board/* the official announcement states. 
*' Every unit should have a chairman, vice chairman, 
secretary and treasurer, as well as a chairman for 
every department of work that may be taken up, these 
heads to appoint chairmen for necessary departments 
of work. These department heads shall send a weekly 
report to her county chairman and a duplicate copy 
to the state chairman of that department. 

*'In appointing department chairmen, each county 
chairman shall give an outline of the work, the depart- 
ment state chairman to instruct the county chairman 
in the departments of work. 

* ' Such funds as may be needed for local work should 
be raised by each unit in such way as may be determ- 
ined by the board of that unit. An assessment might 
be imposed on each member of organizations in the 
county or town. Women's clubs or organizations 
might be asked to contribute." 

The object of the committee is, '*To secure the reg- 
istration of every woman in the State of Missouri ; to 
promote efficiency; to prevent duplication of effort; 
to utilize organizations already in existence; to give 
every woman opportunity for patriotic service, either 
at home or abroad, and incidentally to be an inspira- 
tional center for the entire state; to act as a clear- 
ing house for the work of women. ' ' 

The officers are: honorary chairmen, Mrs. Fred- 
erick D. Gardner, Jefferson City; Mrs. Philip N. 
Moore, St. Louis ; chairman, Mrs. B. F. Bush, member 
of State Council of Defense; vice chairmen, Mrs. 
Selden P. Spencer, St. Louis; Mrs. Hugh C. Ward, 
Kansas City; Mrs. Warren F. Drescher, Hannibal; 

303 



AMERICAN WOMEN AND THE WORLD WAR 

Mrs. W. K. James, St. Joseph ; Mrs. C. W. Greene, Co- 
lumbia; Mrs. E. M. Shepard, Springfield; Mrs. Emily 
Newell Blair, Carthage; Miss Elizabeth Davis, Cape 
Girardeau; treasurer, Mr. William H. Lee; executive 
secretary, Mrs. Olive B. Swan, St. Louis; Executive 
Committee: Mrs. Charles A. Stix, Finance; Mrs. 
Frank P. Hays, Registration; Mrs. Elias Michael, 
Courses of Instruction; Miss Elizabeth Cueny, Or- 
ganization; Mrs. Lon 0. Hocker, Publicity; Mrs. G. 
V. R. Mechin, Speakers; Mrs. Frank Hammar, Red 
Cross; Mrs. George Gellhom, Food Administration 
and Home Economics ; Miss Ellen Tootle James, Child 
Welfare ; Mrs. Fannie Bonner Price, Immigration and 
Alien Groups ; Mrs. W. E. Fischel, Health and Recre- 
ation; Mrs. Philip N. Moore, Liberty Loan; Mrs. 
George Still, Clubs and Kindred Organization; Mrs. 
Philip B. Fouke, Organization St. Louis ; Mrs. Orville 
Martin, Organization Kansas City ; Mrs. N. A. Brown, 
Organization St. Joseph and Buchanan County. The 
Advisory Council consists of the president and one 
delegate of each state or national organization. 

Montana. Montana women, individually and 
through their organizations, have been doing war work 
along practically all lines, but organization under the 
great national war committees has not been perfected 
as rapidly as it has been in other states and no official 
reports of the work in Montana have been received in 
Washington at this writing. The officers of the 
Woman's Committee in Montana are: chairman, Mrs. 
Tyler B. Thompson, Missoula; vice chairman, Mrs. 
Wallace Perham, Glendive; secretary, Mrs. R. Hugh 
Sloane, Missoula; chairman of Registration, Mrs. 
Munill R. Tennis, Butte ; chairman of Food Conserva- 

304 



STATE ORGANIZATIONS 

tion, Miss Bess Rowe, Bozeman; chairman of Social 
Service, Mrs. S. M. Saunders, Red Lodge; chairman 
of Education, Mrs. Kate W. Jameson, IMissoula, Dean 
of Women 's University of Montana ; chairman of Lib- 
erty Loan, Mrs. W. W. MacDowell, Butte; chairman 
of Red Cross, Mrs. C. B. Nolan, Helena ; chairman of 
Health and Recreation, Mrs. Mary Alderson, Roze- 
man; chairman of Publicity, Mrs. L. 0. Edmonds, 
Absarokee. 

Nehrasha. *'The "Woman ^s Committee of the Ne- 
braska State Council of Defense since its inception the 
30th day of June, 1917, has been woman 's opportunity 
to prove her patriotism,'' said Prof. Sarka B. 
Hrbkova, chairman of the Woman's Committee of the 
Council of National Defense. *'The very establish- 
ment of a Woman's Committee was the recognition 
of woman as a definite and dependable factor in the 
conduct and success of a great war against the dark 
forces in Central Europe which are jeopardizing 
democracy. Our Nebraska Woman's Committee has 
proudly accepted this open acknowledgment by the 
, government of the inherent right and responsibility 
of women to give service to their country. The 
women of our state as of other states labor today for 
the protection of their country as effectively as the 
soldiers fight for it on the far-flung frontiers of the 
war zone. Nebraska women are responding with all 
the vigor and the unalloyed ardor which our wonder- 
ful western prairie country arouses. Our women do 
not talk their patriotism; they live it." 

The organization of the ninety-three counties of the 
state into an effective working machine was the first 
big work after which the food-pledge drive was given 

305 



AMERICAN WOMEN AND THE WORLD WAR 

impetus. The first real test of the "machinery" 
planned and put into motion by the women and for 
the women of Nebraska was the public registration of 
women for patriotic service accomplished in one day — 
September 12, 1917, at all the regular polling places 
of the state, by proclamation of Governor Keith 
Neville. Fully fifty per cent of the woman power of 
Nebraska was enlisted in that significant public de- 
monstration. A question and answer publicity cam- 
paign all crowded into a nutshell of a printed 
"dodger" preceded the first formal registration day 
in which it was the privilege of Nebraska women to 
participate. 

An interesting development of the big ''get-to- 
gether" meeting of the county chairman of Woman's 
Committees held at Lincoln, Nebraska, September 4, 
1917, was the means taken by resourceful leaders in 
various counties to get out all the women on registra- 
tion day. In one county every school in the districts 
registering the largest number of mothers was pre- 
sented with a patriotic record for the school phono- 
graph. In another county pictures of great Ameri- 
cans were presented to the schools in the districts with 
the largest enrollments of women for patriotic service. 

The formal introduction of foreign born women to 
the Uncle Sam of their adoption has been made one 
of the earnest pursuits of the Woman's Committee. 
Through the department of naturalization which has 
been rechristened "Americanization" a serious and 
effective appeal was published in every foreign lan- 
guage paper in the state excepting only certain Ger- 
man publications in strongly alien districts. These 
papers likewise printed, at the request of the woman 

306 



STATE ORGANIZATIONS 

member of the State Council of Defense a list of 
all the naturalization laws affecting women. Large 
groups of foreign born girls and women have, in re- 
sponse to this call, taken out their first papers as 
American citizens. On one such occasion when a 
group of twenty or more Scandinavian and Bohemian 
young women were leaving the court house with the 
material evidence of their intention to become full- 
fledged American citizens, a man well known in poli- 
tics who stood at the entrance said, * ' There go twenty 
votes that no politician can buy." 

Not only have the women of Nebraska accomplished 
much in bringing about the Americanization of their 
foreign born sisters, but their activities have had a 
salutary effect upon the male members of the families 
involved. It is an actual fact that numbers of men 
in the families of the women seeking Americanization 
awoke to the realization that they too should natural- 
ize, and forthwith they hurried to the proper authori- 
ties lest their women outdo them. It is thus that the 
war for democracy is being waged here at home. 

The comfort of the loyal lads at the camps has given 
grave concern, but the Red Cross and Health and 
Recreation departments have been equal to the task. 
When there have been no ready funds, the boys have 
not suffered, for there have been willing hearts and 
patriotic pockets which are never padlocked. 

Truly wonderful results were reported from ** Dry- 
ing and Canning Week'* in Omaha. The Committee 
printed 40,000 pamphlets on food conservation and in 
the interest of stimulating an interest in drying and 
canning. These were distributed by the retail grocers 
and through the schools. Reports were to the effect 

307 



AMERICAN WOMEN AND THE WORLD WAR 

that there was an increase of fifty per cent in canning 
and drying. In six days, under the influence of the 
housewives ' ' ' drive, ' ' the people of Omaha put up for 
future use 6,000 baskets of tomatoes, 3,000 baskets of 
beans, 9,000 dozen ears of corn, and 4,800 bushels of 
apples. This does not include the garden products 
put up by people from their private gardens, which 
would probably increase the figures twenty per cent. 
At this time Nebraska had an army of 2,135 women 
food conservation volunteers from 247 towns at work 
spreading the gospel of canning, drying, etc. Train- 
ing schools to equip these recruits to act as canning 
demonstrators were held in thirty-three towns over 
the state. The schools were conducted under the 
auspices of the Agricultural Extension service. So 
popular did these training schools become that women 
were enrolled from other states, including Colorado, 
Illinois, Iowa, Missouri, South Dakota, Idaho, and 
Wisconsin. One volunteer from a training school 
taught 191 women friends the art of canning, and set 
500 as her goal before the season closed. This is a 
remarkable story, but the remarkable part about it is 
that the volunteer demonstrator did the work at ' ' odd 
times," while working in a postoffice from 6:30 a. m., 
to 6 :30 p. M., with but thirty minutes for lunch. 

No account of the work of the women of Nebraska 
would be complete without something of the really 
wonderful amount of Red Cross work that has been 
done by the women of that state. Captains of in- 
dustry, wage earners, boy scouts, everybody, joined 
in the great Red Cross Campaign. Not only did 
Omaha oversubscribe the war fund in the week's cam- 
paign, but a mere handful of citizens pledged more 

308 



STATE ORGANIZATIONS 

than half of the allotment at a Red Cross dinner given 
three days before the campaign proper began. 

The campaigns were no sooner over than the women, 
whose enthusiasm was now completely aroused by the 
patriotic rallies and publicity to the immediate and 
vital need for hospital supplies at the battle front, 
formed into Red Cross auxiliaries, thus enlisting 
thousands of voluntary workers in the great healing 
army. 

Besides fifty-five recognized auxiliaries, whose mem- 
bers either work at the Red Cross workshop or else- 
where under expert supervision, and the thirty-seven 
auxiliaries in the public schools, which have 2,725 
pupils in them, there are countless organizations mak- 
ing garments and knitting for the Red Cross. The 
children have consecrated their hours of play to serv- 
ice, their parents have practically abandoned all social 
obligation and, with eager hands inspired by earnest 
hearts, they are preparing the necessary supplies 
which will alleviate the suffering of our boys on the 
battle line. The President commandeered them and 
they answered his bugle cry to arms. 

A bird's-eye view of the model organization of the 
thousands of people in Omaha now engaged in Red 
Cross work makes the idea that Omaha was handicap- 
ped in the beginning by the lack of a chapter seem 
like an absurdity. Notwithstanding, this was the sit- 
uation, for with the exception of the Beatrice chapter 
and one or two small towns in the western part of the 
state which were organized under the Mountain divi- 
sion at Denver, there was nothing in the entire state 
upon which to build. 

"With the growth of the Omaha chapter came 

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AMERICAN WOMEN AND THE WORLD WAR 

hundreds of inquiries from every town in the state 
and from several adjoining states. Through the 
efforts of Mrs. Z. T. Lindsay, chairman of the woman's 
committee in the state, and Frank Judson, state di- 
rector, every one of the 102 chapters have been estab- 
lished in the ninety-three counties, several chapters 
having branch auxiliaries. The membership on Sep- 
tember 1, 1917, was as large as that of any state in 
the Union, population considered, or the largest mem- 
pership per capita. 

The officers are: chairman. Miss Sarka B. Hrb- 
kova; 1st vice chairman, Mrs. W. W. Barkley, Lin- 
coln; 2nd vice chairman, Mrs. J. N. Paul, St. Paul, 
President Nebraska Federation of Women Clubs; 
3d vice chairman, Mrs. E. G. Drake, Beatrice, 
State Regent, D. A. R. ; treasurer, Mrs. Keith Neville, 
Lincoln; secretary, Miss Annie L. Miller, Lincoln; 
auditors: Mrs. Jennie M. Rogers, Gibbon, State 
President Women's Relief Corps; Mrs. J. S. Claflin, 
University Place, State President Women's Christian 
Temperance Union; Mrs. Z. T. Lindsey, Omaha, Miss 
Mary Dungan Hastings, Y. W. C. A.; chairman of 
Registration, Mrs. A. E. Sheldon, Lincoln; chairman 
of Child Welfare, Mrs. Draper Smith, Omaha ; chair- 
man of Social Service, Miss Ida L. Robbins, Lincoln ; 
chairman of Education, Miss Alice Florer, Lincoln; 
chairman of Red Cross, Mrs. Z. T. Lindsey, Omaha; 
chairman of Health and Recreation, Dr. James E. 
Calif as, Omaha; chairman of Americanization, Dr. 
Olga Stastny, Omaha ; chairman of Liberty Loan, Mrs. 
A. G. Peterson, Aurora. 

Nevada. The women of Nevada have gone about 
their war work with the energy and enthusiasm char- 

310 



STATE ORGANIZATIONS 

acteristic of the people of that state. The Nevada 
Division of the Woman's Committee of the Council 
of National Defense was organized June 14, 1917. 
Immediately this Committee began to cooperate with 
the State Council of Defense and specific work was 
undertaken in accordance with existing conditions. 
It was decided that registration could best be taken 
by means of the food pledge and therefore efforts in 
these two lines were combined. Perhaps Nevada 
women have occupied themselves mostly with work for 
the Red Cross, the Food Administration and the Lib- 
erty Loan. "The Red Cross seems to us so vital," 
says the state chairman, Mrs. Pears Buckner Ellis, 
*'that it became the immediate concern of every pa- 
triotic man, woman and child in the state. The en- 
rollment in this army of mercy has been phenomenal 
and large sums have been subscribed." In both sales 
of Liberty bonds Nevada has held a place close to 
the top, and in the food-pledge campaign the state 
has also made an excellent showing. 

As president of the Federation of Women's Clubs 
and chairman of national and state defense work, 
Mrs. Ellis has been able to coordinate the work of the 
women of her state. "It is a great satisfaction to be 
able to say," said Mrs. Ellis, "that the women of the 
clubs have faithfully carried out instructions and have 
accomplished all the work laid out for them by the 
State Council of Defense and by the Woman's Com- 
mittee. Through the aid and advice of Governor 
Boyle and of Mr. Henry Hoyt of the Federal Food 
Administration for Nevada, we have had most grati- 
fying results. ' ' 

Mrs. R. G. Withers, of Reno, is secretary for the 

311 



AMERICAN WOMEN AND THE WORLD WAR 

Nevada Committee, and Mrs. Harry Clarke is treas- 
urer. Chairman of committees are: Registration, 
Mrs. E. D. Boyle; Child Welfare, Mrs. Frank Ellis 
Humphrey ; Liberty Loan, Mrs. S. D. Belf ord ; Home 
Economics, Miss Frances Hancock ; Health and Recre- 
ation, Mrs. S. D. Eubank; Home and Foreign Relief, 
Mrs. Hugh Brown ; Publicity, Mrs. George West, 



CHAPTER XXIII 

NEW HAMPSHIRE, NEW JERSEY AND NEW 
MEXICO 

New Hampshire follows interesting plan of organiza- 
tion — State Chairman gives her residence as headquar- 
ters — New Jersey women initiate many novel forms of 
patriotic service — Canning centers in every community 
— ^Markets opened all over the state — New Mexico fur- 
nishes a thrill to Mr. Hoover — Drying food not a "lost 
art" in that state. 

New Hampshire, In New Hampshire the women 
followed closely the suggestions of the National 
Woman's Committee and attempted an organization 
in every city and town in the state. Within a short 
time the Committee was able to report, *'We have 
only about five or six towns of any considerable size 
that have not already been organized, and there has 
been a steady advance along many lines. ' ' 

'*New Hampshire's plan of organization is inter- 
esting. An organization in a town consists of a chair- 
man and several vice chairmen, the number being de- 
termined by the needs of the town. Each chairman 
presides over a certain district of the town, and the 
territory is divided up closely so that each woman may 
make an actual house to house canvass whenever 
needed. There is a very widely representative State 
Board and each member of a State Board is given a 
particular part of the state work to do. For instance, 

313 



AMERICAN WOMEN AND THE WORLD WAR 

one member has charge of the grocery deliveries and 
works in the interest of that ; another has the coopera- 
tion with the Red Cross ; another the extension of vol- 
untary service, somewhat similar to the V. A. D., in 
Canada; another the training for war service; an- 
other is librarian ; another has child welfare and the 
education of children along patriotic lines; another 
has been named, under Mr. Hoover and Mr. Huntley 
N. Spaulding, Federal Food Commissioner of New 
Hampshire, as Home Economics Director. The State 
chairman, Mrs. Mary I. Wood, of Portsmouth, said : 

I am glad to bear witness to the splendid cooperation 
which we have received from the Public Safety Committee 
and from Mr. Huntley N. Spaulding, the Federal Food 
Commissioner for the state of New Hampshire. Under Mr. 
Spaulding a food campaign was planned wliich I believe 
■was second to none in the United States. The plan pro- 
vided for a sufficient number of home economics workers 
so that every town in the State could be reached with 
demonstrators on food conservation and food substitution 
and a housekeepers' exchange. Under each town unit we 
have a sufficient number of workers so that these women 
who are not able to attend the demonstrations may be 
reached by the lessons in a house to house campaign by 
these sub-chairmen. There is also a system of coopera- 
tion with the cities and towns whereby home economics is 
taught in the public schools so that the curriculum of these 
schools may allow the release of a teacher for a certain 
part of a day each week. Our hope is that our sub-chair- 
men may be willing to take lessons in home economics from 
these teachers. 

We are also in the midst of a series of lessons which have 
been arranged in such a way that every town unit may send 
its chairman, sub-chairmen and food committee members to 

314 



STATE ORGANIZATIONS 

attend this conference and inspirational meetings, returning 
to their homes without spending the night. At these meet- 
ings we have speakers who bring before the people very 
clearly the fact that America is at war; just why we have 
entered the war; something of what the war means; the 
government's plan for the using of the woman power of 
America; the plans of the Food Administrator and a talk 
on food substitution and food conservation. These meet- 
ings give great satisfaction and the women respond splen- 
didly. We also tried to get before large groups of people 
daily, and we were able to feel that from the north to south 
and from the east to west of our little State we are pretty 
keenly alive to the war necessity and also to the part which 
our women are to take in this great crisis. 

Of course, no great credit should be given to us because 
we are a small State and we do not have the many insur- 
mountable obstacles which some states present. We are 
not beset with labor troubles nor do we have great groups 
of foreign people who may not clearly understand our 
message. We are fortunate in the splendid support which 
we have, and we are especially fortunate in our Federal 
Food Commissioner. With all of these assets New Hamp- 
shire ought to make good. 

Mrs. Wood gave her residence in Portsmouth for 
headquarters of the Woman's Committee until perma- 
nent arrangements could be made. Other officers are : 
vice chairman, Miss Anne Hobbs, Concord ; secretary, 
Mrs. Albertus T. Dudley, Exeter; treasurer, Mrs. 
Susan C. Bancroft, Concord; Directors: Mrs. Mabel 
N. Adams, Derry ; Mrs. Alpha H. Harriman, Laconia ; 
Mrs. R, W. Husband, Hanover ; Mrs. William L. Scho- 
field, Peterborough; Mrs. George D. Towne, Man- 
chester. 

New Jersey. If New Jersey does not really lead all 

315 



AMERICAN WOMEN AND THE WORLD WAR 

the rest in many branches of war work, it is certainly 
not unfair to say that no state has initiated more cred- 
itable and novel forms of patriotic service, nor have 
the women of any state worked more constantly or to 
better purpose. 

New Jersey housewives have long been noted for 
their thrift and efficiency, and the community spirit 
has run high among them for some time before war 
was declared. There were many splendid organiza- 
tions doing work along broad and practical lines and 
it was only necessary for these to turn their power 
to war work for things to begin to happen. It was 
in New Jersey that the '* community kitchen^' — ^later 
called the ''war kitchen'' — idea began to develop, and 
to attract the attention of national leaders. In New- 
ark and in other cities and towns the experiment was 
tried with pronounced success. It was also in New 
Jersey that the women planned a ''cafeteria" picking 
of vegetables and fruits. This plan was suggested 
soon after news reached Summit that a farmer had 
plowed under a whole field of peas because he could 
get no pickers. The Canning Unit of the Woman's 
Committee of the Council of National Defense 
asked the farmers not to plow under anything else 
until the women had been given a chance at the 
fields. 

The practical spirit of the New Jersey women in 
regard to food conservation is well shown in a letter 
to the Woman 's Committee at Washington from Mrs. 
Mary Skidmore, in which she says: "Not a woman 
among us but stands ready to save the crumbs. But 
we also want to know something about the control of 
waste at the market source. We want to know some- 

316 



STATE ORGANIZATIONS 

thing about the trainloads of food on our Jersey- 
marshes while we are paying the price they choose to 
ask. I say there should be control of public waste at 
the source — meanwhile we do what we can at home. 
Our canning unit is going to ask that the farmers will 
not plow under their fields until they give us a chance 
to pick. I can fancy a cafeteria process, by which one 
goes into a field, picks what beans one wants, has her 
basket valued on the way out and pays the price less 
her labor." 

Mrs. Charles W. Stockton, of Ridgewood, chairman 
of the Woman ^s Committee of the New Jersey Coun- 
cil of National Defense, says : 

I think the New Jersey women are responding to all the 
calls made upon them. Our farming communities have pro- 
duced record crops and the women have not only canned 
and preserved vegetables and fruit, but they have actually 
assisted largely in the gardening which produced the raw 
material. I know of several women who took positions on 
farms or to work in gardens. Among these were two teach- 
ers who wished to spend their vacation in the open air and 
took this way of getting a vacation and doing their bit, at 
the same time. In the cities the back yard gardens have 
been something astonishing and have been made a matter of 
systematic care. Mrs. Wm. L. Smith, of East Orange, has 
done a splendid work along this Une. 

Canning centers have been started in almost every com- 
munity, large and small, and, I think, with excellent results, 
considering that the work was new to everyone and we had 
to feel our way. 

Newark feels that she has started something not for the 
■war but for the future, which is well worth while in an eco- 
nomic way. Miss Alice C. Kirkpatrick, of 47 South Street, 
Newark, who is chairman of the Newark Unit of the 

317 



AMERICAN WOMEN AND THE WORLD WAR 

Woman's Committee, an organization that has rendered 
very valuable service. 

Markets have been started all over the state, and have 
proved an even greater success than anticipated, in most 
cases. They started out almost always as curb-markets but 
have grown until shelters have been provided. I think it 
is the general feeling that this is only a beginning of what 
will make for an open-air market in almost every com- 
munity, not for war times only, but as a part of economic 
living. Successful markets were started at Atlantic City, 
Perth Amboy, Roselle and a number of other places, which 
have served as object lessons and inspirations to other 
places. Mrs. John J. White, Atlantic City; Mrs. Steward 
Audsley of Perth Amboy; and Mrs. Paul Q. Oliver of West- 
field, have been prominently identified with this branch of 
work. 

Red Cross work is receiving, if anything, more than its 
share of attention, and our women are learning how' many 
wonderful, useful garments can be knitted in odd moments. 
Knitting is more and more in evidence every place all the 
time. 

We have two verj^ large camps for soldiers in New Jer- 
sey — Camp Dix, a training camp at Wrightstown, and 
Camp Merrit at Dumont, an embarkation camp. Our women 
are taking hold of recreation work for these camps not only 
with enthusiasm, but with well laid, thoughtful plans for 
continuing the work which they begin. Miss Margretta 
Fort of Spring Lake Beach, is in charge of the work at 
Camp Dix, and Mrs. F. S. Bennett of Englewood, is in 
charge of work at Camp Merritt. 

If the full history of the war work of New Jersey 
women were written it would fill volumes, and un- 
doubtedly it would recite a story of efficiency in pa- 
triotic work that would be valuable to America and to 
the rest of the world. Each of the twenty-one coun- 

318 



STATE ORGANIZATIONS 

ties is organized and the majority of the large cities 
have local units. The Committee on Woman 's Service 
in each town is under the mayor in relation to two 
duties: first, cooperation with the Red Cross, where 
a tremendous work has been done; second, making a 
census of women who might replace men in industry. 
The headquarters is in the home of the chairman, 
Mrs. Chas. W. Stockton, Ridgewood. Other officers 
are: secretary, Mrs. Thomas B. Adams, Summit; 
treasurer, Mrs. Seymour L. Cromwell, Bernardsville ; 
honorary vice chairman, Mrs. M. Otto Wittpenn, Jer- 
sey City. 

New Mexico. One of the most interesting things 
that has happened in Washington since Mr. Hoover 
became the National Food Administrator was the ar- 
rival of a series of pictures sent by the women of New 
Mexico showing the methods of drying fruits and 
vegetables practiced by the native population of the 
state and by the Pueblo Indians. Even in the cliff 
dwellings there was found evidence that these early 
settlers practiced the art of conservation — * ' some time 
before the advent of Mr. Hoover," as a New Mexico 
woman has it. 

When Farmers' Bulletin No. 841 on Drying Fruits 
and Vegetables arrived in New Mexico from the De- 
partment of Agriculture in Washington, the women 
laughed in their sleeves. '^Even the drying of fruits 
and vegetables as practiced a few decades ago," the 
bulletin said, ' ' on many farms has become practically 
a lost art; the present food situation doubtless will 
cause a marked stimulation of drying as a means of 
conserving the food supply." The drying of fruits 
and vegetables was far from a lost art in New Mexico, 

319 



AMERICAN WOMEN AND THE WORLD WAR 

as any one can testify who has gone through the coun- 
try and has seen all the fruits and vegetables of the 
community spread out in the sun to dry. Almost all 
the food conserved in New Mexico is dried, and it was 
stated that fully two-thirds of the women in that state 
practice the "lost art" of drying fruits and vege- 
tables regularly. 

Among the pictures sent to Mr. Hoover was a series 
showing Indian pueblos in harvest time — roof tops 
spread with grain, houses hung with chili, the plaza 
spread with meat, squash, corn, beans, alfalfa, and 
corn shock, making a veritable picture of plenty. 

In the campaign of conservation the ranch women 
of New Mexico proved a distinct asset. They are past 
masters in the art of conservation, and their hearty 
cooperation proved an inestimable benefit in the food 
conservation program. 

The civilization of New Mexico is unique among all 
of the states of the Union; the problems are unique, 
and therefore she has been able to make a valuable 
contribution to the national war program, along lines 
of conservation. "Because the methods employed by 
the majority of our women are primitive," says the 
chairman of the Woman's Auxiliary of New Mexico, 
" is no reason why they should be scorned for they are 
perhaps the most economical in point of time, energy 
and material. ' ' 

The organization of the Woman's Auxiliary of the 
Council of Defense of New Mexico is slightly different 
from the organization of other state divisions of the 
Woman's Committee of the Council of National De- 
fense. The reason for this is that New Mexico was 
ahead of the schedule on organization and when the 

320 



STATE ORGANIZATIONS 

"Woman's Committee of the National Council took up 
the question of a state Division for New Mexico they 
found the "Woman's Auxiliary appointed by the State 
Council of Defense already organized and active. 

Instead of having chairmen of various departments 
for the state, the Auxiliary is composed of county 
units, each duplicating the state organization, and the 
county units in turn subdivded into district units, 
according to the school districts in each county. For 
a state as sparsely populated and as difficult on the 
score of transportation, this form of organization is 
much better than the one adopted in eastern states. 
Each county chairman is responsible to her unit for 
all departments, and there are no separate depart- 
ment heads. 

The New Mexico Division is, moreover, a part of 
the Council of Defense of New Mexico, was created by 
that body and thus has the benefit of their active 
cooperation. The Council of Defense appointed 
women from the various counties of New Mexico as 
temporary chairmen of those counties, who selected 
the permanent officers and members of the Woman's 
Auxiliary. 

The expert publicity work done by the "Woman's 
Auxiliary of the New Mexico State Council of De- 
fense would do credit to any **big business," and is 
undoubtedly responsible in a large degree for the 
success of the women of the ' * Sunshine State ' ' in the 
prosecution of their war work. 

One of the earliest tasks the New Mexico women im- 
posed upon themselves was the establishment of open 
markets in every city and town in the state for the 
distribution and sale of home grown vegetables and 

321 



AMERICAN WOMEN AND THE WORLD WAR 

food products. ' ' It does not matter how small a scale 
you open your market on," the Woman's Auxiliary 
told their women ; ' ' the important thing is to begin it, 
and let it increase in size and scope as the season pro- 
gresses. ' ' Here is another sound piece of advice given 
out by these enterprising women: *'Do not be dis- 
couraged or impatient if things do not go with a rush 
at first. Remember, that it takes Uncle Sam six months 
to make a soldier ; we can not create a municipal mar- 
ket in a single day, or organize Auntie Sam's army 
over night. The important thing is to realize that 
every minute counts, and that every effort, however 
small, increases the larger effort which we must make 
in order to insure success. This is not an economic ex- 
periment for a nation who may be at war tomorrow; 
it is a practical necessity for a nation at war todaj^" 

In the center of the plaza of Santa Fe there is a 
monument erected by the legislatures of New Mexico 
of 1866-7-8 to the heroes who have fallen in the 
various battles with savage Indians in the territory of 
New Mexico and to the heroes of the Federal Army 
who fought and who fell in the battles of Canon del 
Apache and Pigeons' Rancho, March 28, 1862, and in 
the battle of Valverde, February 21, 1862. 

The Patriotic committee of the Santa Fe branch of 
the Woman's Auxiliary of the Council of Defense of 
New Mexico placed on this monument a bulletin post- 
ing the names of all those men in Santa Fe now in the 
service of their country; and it was suggested by the 
Woman's Auxiliary of the Council that this plan be 
adopted by all the towns and villages of the state of 
New Mexico. 

322 



STATE ORGANIZATIONS 

The bulletins are placed in some prominent place 
where all who pass may see them and recognize daily 
this honor roll of the living. The men are listed un- 
der the branch of service in which they are engaged, 
and their whereabouts, when possible, are stated. In 
this way the people of town and village or community 
will have a daily reminder of the heroes of today who 
are giving their time and their strength and, it may be, 
their lives, to the cause of democracy. The Honor 
Roll of the living will be a cause of cherishing pride 
to the loyal citizens of each community. 

In its appeal the Woman's Auxiliary said, ''It is 
earnestly recommended by the Woman's Auxiliary 
that each district unit post this list of the men of its 
community in active service in the most prominent 
place in the town or village as soon as possible. We 
can not pay too much honor to the men who are de- 
fending us. We feel sure that the men in the train- 
ing camps or in the navy or in the trenches will like 
to know that, as we pass through the plaza or along 
the streets, their names will flash upon us each day the 
instant recognition of their loyal, devoted service, and 
that we do not have to wait until they have fallen in 
battle to express our gratitude. ' ' 

Officers of the Woman's Auxiliary of New Mexico 
are: chairman, Mrs. W. E. Lindsey, Santa Fe; 1st 
vice chairman, Mrs. A. A. Kellam, Albuquerque; 2nd 
vice chairman, Mrs. H. J. Hammond; secretary, Mrs. 
F. L. Myers, Las Vegas; assistant secretary, Mrs. 
Walter M. Danburg, Santa Fe ; treasurer, Mrs. R. M. 
Fegusson, Tyrone; auditor, Mrs. R. Harwell, Estan- 
cia; chairman at large, Mrs. A. A. Kellam, Albu- 

323 



AMERICAN WOMEN AND THE WORLD WAR 

querque; chairman at large, Mrs. R. Harwell, Estan- 
cia; chairman at large, Mrs. Walter M. Danburg, 
Santa Fe; chairman at large, Mrs. F. L. Myers, Las 
Vegas. 



CHAPTER XXIV 

NEW YORK AND NORTH CAROLINA 

New York State organizes early and plan of organiza- 
tion is interesting — Constructive work for maintaining 
home with present standards chief concern of State 
Committee — ^Mayor's Committee of City of New York 
and its great work — Suffrage organization makes valu- 
able contribution to organization work — North Caro- 
lina's splendid record. 

New York. Under the chairmansliip of Mrs. Wil- 
liam Grant Brown, president of the New York Fed- 
eration of Women 's Clubs, the Woman 's Committee of 
the Council of National Defense of New York State 
has set the pace for the Nation in every field of pa- 
triotic endeavor. In May, 1917, Mrs. Brown, known 
as one of the ablest and best equipped among the 
women leaders of America, was made temporary 
chairman of the Woman's Committee of her state, and 
later she was elected permanent chairman. Prom the 
beginning her slogan has been * ' No competition. Sin- 
cere cooperation is the object.'' 

New York's plan of organization embraced the fol- 
lowing : 

The Board of Officers of the New York State Division 
of the Woman's Committee of the Council of National De- 
fense have been constituted as the Woman's Division of the 
New York State Defense Council and the chairman of the 

325 



AMERICAN WOMEN AND THE WORLD WAR 

New York Division has been designated as Chief of the 
Division and authorized in the name of the State Defense 
Council to designate in all counties a competent woman 
to serve as temporary chairman. It shall be the duty of 
the temporary chairman to call into conference the presi- 
dents, or their proxies, of aU local woman's organizations 
as soon as possible. Such conference shall constitute a 
committee to be known as the Woman's Section for the 
given county and shall proceed to organize itself by elect- 
ing a chairman for the county. As soon as organized, the 
Chief of the Woman's Division should be informed and the 
name of the permanent chairman, together with the list of 
the organizations represented at the meeting, should be 
transmitted to the Chief of the Division. 

The State Defense Council has recommended to the 
various County Home Defense Committees that they recog- 
nize the chairman of the Woman's Section of the county as 
an additional member of the County Home Defense Com- 
mittee to advise with the committees in a program for 
woman's work. 

A city (or town) committee may be formed by the County 
Section to be composed of the president or one repre- 
sentative of each cooperating organization. This committee 
in all towns shall be called the (name of town) Unit of the 
Woman's Section. The Committee, in cities of sufficient 
size to warrant a more intensive organization, shall be 
known as the Woman's Committee of (name of city). 

The City Committee shall proceed as rapidly as possible 
to establish auxiliary Units in each ward. The same proc- 
ess of the appointment of a temporary chairman as was fol- 
lowed in the organization of state and city will probably 
prove the most successful plan. The ward organization 
conference, however, should be a general meeting of the 
women of the ward and the Unit will be composed of indi- 
vidual members. 

This plan of proposed organization merely links together 

326 



STATE ORGANIZATIONS 

in complete working cooperation existing organizations of 
women. The Woman's Division of the state and the county 
and city committees are designed to be a federation of all 
organizations of women directly responsible to the state 
Defense Council and to the Council of National Defense. 
There may be women, however, who are not members of 
any organization represented in the city or town com- 
mittee. For the benefit of such women, freedom to form 
other units should be allowed, the primary object being to 
coordinate patriotic service of as many women as possible. 

Departments may add individual membership. Clubs, 
church societies and groups of various kinds may affiliate 
directly with a department with whose work they wish to 
cooperate. 

Organizations may be found already engaged on some 
special line of work which may suitably be charged with 
the responsibility for that department of work. 

The headquarters of the State Division of New 
York is in the Hotel Astor, New York City, and of 
the Woman's Division of the New York State's De- 
fense Council at the Capital, 23 Washington Avenue, 
Albany. The state chairman, in her initial announce- 
ment said, ''The Woman's Committee of the Council 
of National Defense aims to bring to all women's or- 
ganizations a relationship that may help one and all 
in non-duplication of the work, and that each organ- 
ization shall retain its independence, yet realize the 
necessity of a natural Federal head, or clearing house, 
through which all may keep in touch. Each state and 
city will naturally find problems peculiar to itself, but 
the chairman in charge will realize the opportunity of 
unity for all powers to centralize and coordinate their 
work so that the greatest efficiency and conservation 
shall be accomplished. The officers of the New York 

327 



AMERICAN WOMEN AND THE WORLD WAR 

State Division of the Woman ^s Committee are : chair- 
man, Mrs. William Grant Brown ; vice-chairmen, Mrs. 
Ella A. Boole, Mrs. Norman de R. Whitehouse, Mrs. 
Nicholas Brade, Mrs. Felix Warburg; acting treas- 
urer ; Mrs. Ella A. Boole ; secretary, Mrs. John Fran- 
cis Yawger; chairman of organization, Mrs. Emily 
Palmer Cape. The Executive Board consists of the 
presidents of all state organizations of women. 

*'The Division confines itself mostly, ^^ said Mrs. 
William Grant Brown, "to constructive work for the 
maintaining of the home with its present standards, 
the education of the children and the general moral 
questions of the community/' The Committee is 
divided into six sub-committees. These committees, 
with their chairmen, are as follows: Industry, Miss 
Nelle Swartz ; Hygiene and Health, Mrs. Elmer Blair ; 
Camp Entertainment, Mrs. Ruth Litt; Legislation, 
Miss Sophie Irene Loeb; Education — Food Conserva- 
tion — Production, Prof. Martha Van Rensselaer ; Wel- 
fare, Mrs. William Einstein. 

The nation may well point with pride to the Mayor's 
Committee of the City of New York as an expression 
of the efficiency, initiative and patriotic enthusiasm of 
American women. Considering the size of the task 
this committee of women set for themselves and the 
fact that they constitute an organization that is wholly 
voluntary and that is no way supported by the munic- 
ipal government, the results accomplished in the first 
six months of war are nothing short of marvelous. 
The method of organization and operation of this 
committee may be studied with profit by women every- 
where who are interested in perfecting their war work 
machines. It will be noticed that the work has been 

328 



STATE ORGANIZATIONS 

divided into certain standing committees charged with 
definite tasks and that these committees are distinct 
units individually responsible for the work assigned to 
them. 

As stated, the work of the committee has been 
financed by voluntary contributions. In the first five 
months, the committee on finance, under the chair- 
manship of Mrs. Charles Cary Rumsey, raised $22,841 
and expenditures totaled $12,478.84, It has been 
charged sometimes that women are not good financiers. 
It is doubtful if any body of men anywhere in the 
world could have made a better showing in actual, 
tangible results of this expenditure than the women of 
the Mayor 's Committee of the City of New York have 
made. 

The function and purpose of the Mayor's Commit- 
tee of Women on National Defense Work is: *'To 
register all women's organizations in New York City 
interested in war service, to so coordinate their efforts 
as to eliminate unnecessary duplication, and in every 
way possible to direct women's patriotic energies into 
the most useful channels. To suggest, and, where de- 
sirable to initiate new activities." 

The Mayor's Committee of New York, being already 
organized as a quasi official branch of the local city 
government, was recognized by both the Woman's 
Committee of the Council of National Defense, and the 
Woman's Division of the State Defense Council, as 
the official New York City Division of the Woman's 
Committee. ''To both state and federal agencies, 
therefore," says the Committee in its first report, 
''the Mayor's Committee of Women is indebted for 
assistance and cooperation." 

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AMERICAN WOMEN AND THE WORLD WAR 

When appointing the Mayor's Committee of Women 
on National Defense on April 18, 1917, the Honorable 
John Purroy Mitchel, Mayor of New York City, stated 
it to be the function of the Committee to cooperate 
with the Mayor's Committee on National Defense, of 
which Mr. Willard Straight was Chairman, ''in order 
that we may bring into this work the coordinated 
effort of all existing women's organizations in the de- 
fense field With this committee in existence, we 

will have all of the potential citizen forces of the com- 
munity organized and lined up for the most effective 
work that can be done during the period that is to 
come." The Mayor's Committee of Women main- 
tains a close relationship with the men's committee, 
with which it is coordinate. Some standing commit- 
tees are joint committees of men and women, and all 
committees have full knowledge of one another 's activ- 
ities. 

The following letter sent to Miss Ruth Morgan, 
Chairman, indicates the first commission intrusted to 
this committee : 

It is important that the work of coordination of women's 
organizations engaged in activities for war emergencies be 
immediately imdertaken by your committee. 

I am, therefore, desirous that all such organizations or 
groups register with your committee at the earliest possible 
moment full information concerning their activities and the 
plan and scope of their work." 

(Signed) John Purroy Mitchell, 

Mayor. 

The work of registration was promptly begun. Uni- 
form registration blanks were sent to all known organ- 

330 



STATE ORGANIZATIONS 

izations of women in the city. The information thus 
secured will be made available for federal, state, mu- 
nicipal and private agencies, and will further serve as 
a means of correlating women 's war service. 

Standing committees were appointed as follows: 
Agricultural, sub-committees on Farm Labor and 
Farm Sites; Aliens; Census; Food; Joint Committee 
on Industry and Employment; with sub-committees 
on Industry, and Employment; Nursing; Publicity; 
Finance. 

The officers of the Committee are: Honorary 
Chairman, Mrs. John Furroy Mitchel ; Chairman, Miss 
Ruth Morgan; Vice-Chairman, Mrs. Willard 
Straight; Secretary, Mrs. Henry Moskowitz; Treas- 
urer, Mrs. V. Everit Macy. The Executive Committee 
is composed of: Miss Amey Aldrich, Mrs. James S. 
Cushman, Miss Virginia C. Gildersleeve, Miss Anne 
W. Goodrich, Miss Mabel H. Kittredge, Mrs. Alex- 
ander Kohut, Mrs. Charles Cary Rumsey, Mrs. F. 
Louis Slade, Mrs. Charles L. Tiffany. 

Members of the Committee include Mrs. Robert 
Adamson, Miss Amey Aldrich, Mrs. Barrett Andrews, 
Mrs. Vincent Astor, Mrs. Robert Bacon, Mrs. August 
Belmont, Mrs. Francis C. Bishop, Mrs. Sidney Borg, 
Mrs. Henry Bruere, Mrs. Francis H. Cabot, Miss 
Alice Carpenter, Mrs. Thomas L. Chadbourne, Jr., 
Mrs. Jessica Finch Cosgrave, Mrs. Frederick L. Cran- 
£ord, Mrs. James S. Cushman, Mrs. Cleveland H, 
Dodge, Miss Martha L. Draper, Mrs. William K. 
Draper, Miss Mary E. Dreier, Mrs. James Gerard, 
Miss Virginia C. Gildersleeve, Miss Pauline Goldmark, 
Miss Anne W. Goodrich, Mrs. John Hays Hammond, 
Mrs. Learned Hand, Mrs. Montgomery Hare, Mrs. 

331 



AMERICAN WOMEN AND THE WORLD WAR 

Joshua Hatfield, Miss Mary Garrett Hay, Mrs. Wil- 
liam Henry Hays, Mrs. Charles Hoffman, Mrs. Charles 

E. Hughes, Mrs. Helen H. Jenkins, Miss Mabel Kitt- 
ridge, Mrs. Alexander Kohut, Mrs. Adolph Laden- 
burg, Mrs. Martin W. Littleton, Mrs. Philip J. Mc- 
Cook, Mrs. V. Everit Macy, Miss Julia Marlowe, Mrs. 
Alice Duer Miller, Mrs. John Purroy Mitchel, Mrs. 
Victor Morawetz, Miss Ruth Morgan, Mrs. William 
Fellowes Morgan, Mrs. Henry Moskowitz, Mrs. Daniel 

F. Murphy, Miss Teresa O'Donohue, Mrs. William 
Church Osborne, Mrs. George W. Perkins, Mrs. Gif- 
ford Pinchot, Mrs. Ernest Poole, Mrs. George Haven 
Putnam, Mrs. Ogden Mills Reid, Mrs. Allan Robbins, 
Mrs. Charles Cary Rumsey, Miss Melinda Scott, Miss 
Mary Shaw, Mrs. V. G. Simkhovitch, Mrs. F. Louis 
Slade, Mrs. William Sporborg, Mrs. William C. 
Storey, Mrs. Willard Straight, Miss Ida Tarbell, Mrs. 
Leonard Thomas, Mrs. Charles L. Tiffany, Mrs. Cornel- 
ius Vanderbilt, Miss Lillian D. Wald, Mrs. John E. 
Weier, Mrs. Norman de R. Whitehouse, Mrs. William 

G. Wilcox, Mrs. Arthur Woods, Mrs. John Francis 
Yawger. 

The Committee of Agriculture, Miss Virginia C. 
Gildersleeve, chairman, Miss Mary E. Foster, secre- 
tary, was organized to coordinate the agricultural work 
already being done by New York City women's organ- 
izations and to supplement and extend their activites. 
Two important tasks at once engaged its attention: 
first, to cooperate with the state employment bureau 
and the employment clearing house of the Mayor's 
Committee of Women in supplying women for agri- 
cultural work ; second, to provide expert advice in con- 
nection with gardening enterprises in New York City 

332 



STATE ORGANIZATIONS 

and community gardening plans in the immediate 
vicinity. 

It appeared that there was no machinery here for 
placing New York women on farms, so the agriculture 
committee opened an employment bureau with that 
function. As it was found in the beginning that 
farmers did not want women employees, one of the 
first duties of this committee was to advertise the fact 
that women can do many sorts of farm work very well 
and to persuade farmers to try them. Publicity was 
obtained in various ways. Then, units of women farm 
workers were formed in which the housing and feed- 
ing of the group of workers was managed under a 
supervisor by a system of cooperative housekeeping. 
The great advantage of this unit plan was that the 
farmer's wife was under no responsibility for the 
housing and feeding of the additional workers. The 
farmer as a rule furnished the living quarters — tents, 
a disused house or a schoolhouse, and the women them- 
selves bought and prepared their own food. Copies of 
a pamphlet issued by the committee, called ''A Unit 
Plan for Agricultural Workers," may be obtained on 
application at the offices of the Mayor's Committee of 
Women, New York City. 

Eleven farm units have been working with the com- 
mittee. One of these, the Mt. Kisco unit, has been 
more or less an agricultural training camp, and has 
numbered as many as seventy residents at one time. 
The workers have gone out from that center to do all 
kinds of farm and garden labor in Westchester Coun- 
ty. One other unit was engaged in general farm work. 
Others, as it happened, were all in the fruit country, 
and their workers were engaged in thinning out 

333 



AMERICAN WOMEN AND THE WORLD WAR 

peaches and picking various kinds of fruit products. 

The committee feels that it has demonstrated the 
practicability of the plan, and that in another year 
it may be desirable and possible to induce not only this 
section of the country, but other districts which are 
already considering the matter, to undertake a system 
of unit committees for farm workers on a very large 
scale. 

The committee was not organized early enough in 
the season to give much timely advice on planting in 
connection with community gardening last spring. It 
did, however, employ an expert in agriculture who 
inspected carefully the market gardens in greater 
New York, and visited also some of the very interest- 
ing community enterprises near New York, as for in- 
stance that in Yonkers. She has drawn up a careful 
report of her investigation. 

A large section of New York resembles rather a 
group of foreign villages than part of an American 
city. The population of these villages is two million, 
and chief among them is the second largest German 
city in the world. Owing to this fact, New York pre- 
sents a problem which is duplicated nowhere else in 
the United States. A committee was organized 
jointly with the men^s committee on aliens to deal with 
that problem by means of a widespread campaign of 
Americanization among aliens, the work to be carried 
on under the direction of a selected staff. It embraces 
many community activities of a special nature. 

The definite aim of the educational campaign is to 
supplement the public school teaching of English 
among foreigners, and to bring to alien communities 
what is best in American culture and civilization, at 

334 



STATE ORGANIZATIONS 

the same time retaining the finest and best that for- 
eigners have to contribute to this country. Its pro- 
gram provides for the organization of additional 
classes both day and night in public schools, factories, 
shops, settlements and social agencies of every kind 
for the teaching of English, civics, American history, 
gymnastic work and dancing to both sexes after they 
have passed school age, and of millinery, cooking and 
embroidery to women. 

The board of education, cooperating with this com- 
mittee, obtained from the board of estimate and ap- 
portionment an appropriation of approximately 
$100,000 to enlarge the classes in above-mentioned 
subjects in public schools in this city. Community 
visitors are being sent into foreign neighborhoods, 
whose purpose is to arouse interest and improve at- 
tendance in these classes. 

The cooperation of the Merchants' Association, the 
Chamber of Commerce, the Hotel Men's Association 
and the Fifth Avenue Association, has been secured in 
the campaign for industrial Americanization. In 
each of these organizations a special committee has 
been appointed to work along the lines of a program 
offered them by this committee for the establishment 
of classes among foreigners in workrooms, shops and 
hotels. These classes offer, beside the ordinary work, 
advanced courses to those who already have been 
taught elsewhere. The result will be to bring the edu- 
cational campaign within the reach of workers of all 
kinds, even laborers, employed in construction work. 

Ninety-eight political, educational, professional and 
social organizations, churches, settlements, clubs, 
schools, industrial establishments and hotels are lend- 

335 



AMERICAN WOMEN AND THE WORLD WAR 

ing their assistance to this work. Conferences are 
being held in community groups to secure direct con- 
tact and mutual understanding, such as personal con- 
ference can bring. 

The committee obtained from the state census a 
list of women with knowledge of foreign languages 
who are willing and able to serve as teachers. This 
list contains 1,215 names. At the same time the census 
list of people who do not speak English is in use. 
They will be followed up and brought into classes 
where they will receive instruction. The committee 
assisted the food administration in the distribution of 
pledge cards by putting appeals in the foreign papers 
asking housewives to sign the pledges and explaining 
their purpose to them. In cooperation with the 
American Eed Cross, the committee has established 
seven auxiliaries in foreign neighborhoods where war 
work is being carried on by the women of the districts. 
Aliens who were refused in the draft are being listed. 
An effort will be made to teach them English, bring 
them in contact with American life and eventually in- 
terest them in citizenship. 

The foreign-language newspapers are being fol- 
lowed closely and gatherings in streets carefully 
watched, in order that the committee may learn what 
the foreign population is doing and saying and think- 
ing, so that educational propaganda may meet direct 
needs. A series of entertainments was arranged 
for the dissemination of American cultural influences. 
An attractive feature of this department of work is 
the branch of the community chorus under the direc- 
tion of Mr. Harry Barnhart. It meets at Public 
School No. 4 on the east side, and is filled on Thursday 

336 



STATE ORGANIZATIONS 

evenings with enthusiastic and happy singers, learn- 
ing to know America through the universal language 
of music. It is hoped that by the means by which 
this committee has chosen to initiate the work, New 
York may be made a city of one people with one 
language, instead of a group of foreign towns. 

The Committee on the Census, Mrs. F. Louis Slade, 
chairman, Miss Louise Meyer, secretary, (by courtesy 
of the Junior League) was organized for the purpose 
of assisting Mr. Ernest P. Goodrich, director of the 
census for New York City, in taking the state military 
census. 

Its duty was to enlist the assistance and to coordin- 
ate the work of the women of this city, and, since of 
the fifty thousand people in New York City who vol- 
unteered to do this work forty thousand were women, 
this was no light task. Organizations of women re- 
sponded with much enthusiasm, and every organiza- 
tion gave to the limit of its strength ; but the woman 
suffrage party, because of its great numbers and com- 
plete organization in every borough, undertook the 
bulk of the work. There has never been a volunteer 
census on such a huge scale before, and while the 
actual taking of the census is completed and the com- 
mittee has been dissolved, the results of the work are 
only now beginning to appear. 

A careful estimate, based on all available informa- 
tion, was that the number of men and women in the 
city of census age would be well under three million, 
and it was assumed that if there were three million 
people a great many of them, even with the finest web 
that could be woven, would slip through the mesh. 
Now, as a matter of fact, 3,266,377 people registered 

337 



AMERICAN WOMEN AND THE WORLD WAR 

at the extraordinarily small cost to the city of $30,000. 
Thus about three thousand more people between six- 
teen and fifty were registered than were supposed to 
exist, so that instead of failing to register some who 
were known to be here, the census discovered people 
who were never discovered before. 

Governor Whitman in speaking of the census quoted 
Lord Northcliffe, who said: ''If England had taken 
such a census at the beginning of her war she would 
have saved millions of pounds and many thousands 
of lives." 

As a practical example of what the census has 
actually accomplished so far, two instances may be 
cited. The material contained on the cards on which 
the registration was made has been copied on larger 
cards punched with holes in such a way that they can 
be run through a tabulating machine. This will throw 
out, for example, cards which designate people of a 
certain occupation, age, locality, or nationality. The 
enlistment officers were anxious to get the names of 
those men who said they wished to serve in the army 
or navy and as a result of going through the census 
over 11,000 additional recruits were immediately se- 
cured. After the men began to go into camp there 
was a shortage of cooks, and by running the cards 
through the machine some 5,000 extra cooks were ob- 
tained. This material has been in shape for use only 
since October 16, 1917, yet the census has already re- 
paid its cost many times. 

Out of over three million registration blanks in the 
city of New York there were, of course, a number that 
were defective. Some people forgot to sign their 
names ; some people failed to answer questions in just 

338 



STATE ORGANIZATIONS 

the right way; some people answered them in exactly 
the wrong way. But it was possible to follow up these 
mistakes and to rectify them, so that at this writing 
there remain only five hundred blanks which fail to 
meet the full requirements of the law. 

''Although police powers were given to the census 
board, not one single person had to be coerced," con- 
cluded the report of the committee. ' ' The methods of 
persuasion and intelligent explanation proved so ef- 
fective that for the first time in our history there has 
been secured a census of the people, taken by the 
people and for the people. We know as a result that 
we live in a city of approximately 5,500,000 inhabit- 
ants capable of developing a great volunteer organi- 
zation and of proving to the world that, in spite of the 
difficulties involved, a volunteer organization with a 
will to succeed, succeeds." 

The Committee on Coordination, Mrs. Henry Mos- 
kowitz, chairman, in accordance with the first com- 
mission intrusted to it, began early in May, 1917, a 
registration of all women 's organizations in New York 
City interested in war service. By November over 
300 organizations had signified their willingness for 
thorough cooperation with the committee in its war 
work. The second phase of the work consisted in 
giving such advice and guidance to the cooperating 
organizations as was found possible. 

The Sub-Committee on Volunteers, Miss Virginia C. 
Gildersleeve, chairman, found that a large amount of 
exceedingly important work, such as the Liberty Loan 
and Food Administration campaigns must be carried 
on by volunteer women workers, and it was found ad- 
visable to try to coordinate through a central clear- 

339 



AMERICAN WOMEN AND THE WORLD WAR 

ing house the various organizations that were register- 
ing and directing volunteers. Such a clearing house 
should put the organizations, committees and govern- 
ment bureaus needing volunteer workers, in touch 
with the organizations and bureaus registering those 
who wish to do this work. It should also do much to 
raise the standard of volunteer work. 

Representatives of the principal organizations en- 
gaged in registering and using volunteer workers 
were called together, and Mrs. John M. Glenn was 
appointed chairman of a sub-committee for this work, 
which drafted an excellent plan for a central clearing 
house for volunteer workers. 

The essential idea of this plan is joint action of the 
principal organizations dealing with the registration 
of volunteers, to form a central bureau to which the 
Red Cross, for example, or the Liberty Loan commit- 
tee when it suddenly needs a number of volunteer 
workers, can send. This call will then be passed on to 
the bureaus engaged in registering individuals for 
service. The clearing house should issue a printed 
bulletin showing where the need is greatest from week 
to week. For example, it might be found one week 
that too many women are engaged in surgical dress- 
ings work and Red Cross relief, with a corresponding 
dearth of workers at that moment under the Liberty 
Loan committee. Such a condition the clearing house 
could effectually relieve. 

It has been emphasized that the central clearing 
house will not itself register individuals. That will 
continue to be done by individual organizations or 
bureaus. They deal with special groups of individu- 
als and know these groups as no central clearing house 

340 



STATE ORGANIZATIONS 

could ever do. It may be necessary to establish new 
registration bureaus for certain groups of volunteers, 
and to make more clear the line of demarcation be- 
tween existing bureaus, in order that the volunteer 
may easily ascertain just where she should register. 

Meanwhile, there are two kinds of calls for volun- 
teers, which are coming very urgently now. One 
kind, for example, is that which the Red Cross issued 
when it suddenly needed 100 especially qualified 
women to go to France for canteen work, and wanted 
to know the bureaus to which it should apply for 
them. That sort of call for volunteers is a very special 
one, involving close knowledge on the part of the sep- 
arate bureaus of the women they have registered and 
can recommend. Then there are the many sudden 
calls which have been coming the past few weeks for 
large numbers of untrained volunteers for some emer- 
gency work, such as that of the Food Administration 
canvass. It is necessary to devise some machinery for 
turning out women quickly in response to these emer- 
gency calls. As time goes on, it seems clear that a 
clearing house for these varied kinds of volunteer 
workers will become increasingly valuable. 

The Committee on Employment, Mrs. Alexander 
Kohut, chairman, Mrs. Edgar Strakosch, committee 
secretary, has four sub-committees as follows : the em- 
ployers*, class, placement, and advisory — and, in the 
latter part of June, 1917, the Mayor's Committee of 
Women in cooperation with the federation of noncom- 
mercial employment agencies, established an employ- 
ment clearing house, to serve all public and private 
noncommercial employment bureaus and other organi- 
zations doing free placement and vocational guidance 

341 



AMERICAN WOMEN AND THE WORLD WAR 

work with women and juveniles. The federation of- 
fered to the clearing house the advantages of its bu- 
reau of information, which exists for the use of all 
noncommercial employment bureaus affiliated with the 
federation, as a center for the accumulation of infor- 
mation concerning industries and individual employ- 
ers. 

The function of the employment clearing house was 
primarily (1) to aid the noncommercial employment 
bureaus in filling such calls as they themselves are un- 
able to fill, with applicants from other bureaus, and 
(2) to obtain calls directly from employers, to be 
transferred to the various bureaus. In the period of 
its existence, June 27 to October 1, 2,208 calls for 
6,381 persons passed through the clearing house, 235 
of which came directly from employers, the remaining 
1,973 from the 24 agencies in active cooperation with 
the clearing house during that time. Varying condi- 
tions have been adequately met and the clearing house 
appears to have fulfilled its function in its operations 
with employers and employment bureaus. 

It is the work of the employers' committee to secure 
calls from employers for labor and to make studies of 
the industries in which women are needed and in 
which they are replacing men. Through the three 
field workers of the clearing house, two of whom were 
volunteers, 192 visits to employers were made. Of 
these, 54 were to banks and trust companies. It was 
found that all but 7 of them were employing women. 
In a large number, the employment of women was a 
new policy necessitated by actual or anticipated loss 
of male employees released for war service and by a 
very great increase in the banking business. 

342 



STATE ORGANIZATIONS 

Visits were also made to factories making army and 
navy uniforms on government contracts. In all, 53 
factories were inspected. In all of them, it was esti- 
mated that the percentage of women and girls em- 
ployed would increase steadily, although it was the 
opinion of the majority of these employers that the 
output of the women could not equal that of the men. 
In two of the shops, instructors were already em- 
ployed to teach the women and girls the work of the 
men. 

Visits were also made to 9 representative railroad 
companies. Replacement is not occurring in the east 
as much as in the middle and western divisions. It is 
the policy of all the railroad companies to employ 
women wherever possible when there is a demand for 
new employees and to give preference to women mem- 
bers of present employees' families. Several insur- 
ance companies, retail organizations and commission 
houses were visited. Conferences have been held with 
the American Locomotive Company and the Interbor- 
ough Rapid Transit representatives with a view to out- 
lining the best method of procedure for the replace- 
ment of men by women in their various plants. 

It was the responsibility of the class committee to 
study all established trade and extension classes, and 
to recommend to the proper authorities the establish- 
ment of such additional classes as are deemed neces- 
sary to equip women and girls for industry. 

Under the joint committee of the employers' and 
class committees, a questionnaire was prepared, to be 
personally submitted to employers in all classes of in- 
dustry by volunteer field workers, in order to ascer- 
tain the positions in which women may be used and 

343 



AMERICAN WOMEN AND THE WORLD WAR 

the requirements for these positions. The active co- 
operation of the Merchants' Association of New York 
was enlisted by the joint committee. 

The work of the placement committee was to study 
placements, for the purpose of determining and main- 
taining standards in placement work and to recom- 
mend to the federation of noncommercial employment 
agencies the adoption of uniform standards in the va- 
rious trades and occupations. 

The matter of placement of untrained, older women 
who have been applying for work in large numbers 
was taken up, and the working women's protective 
union accepted this phase of employment as their 
special task. The state public employment bureau 
also became interested, and plans for cooperation be- 
tween the two bureaus are being formulated. Results 
speak for themselves in the number of openings which 
have been made for these older, inexperienced women. 

The advisory committee consists of members of the 
federation of noncommercial employment agencies 
who are actually doing placement work and who are, 
therefore, proper supervisors of the work of the clear- 
ing house in its daily operations with the bureaus. 

Ways and means of cooperation between bureaus 
and clearing house were devised by them. 

Although the employment clearing house was es- 
tablished as a war measure, it has already justified 
its organization and proved the need of a clearing 
house on a larger scale, not only for employment bu- 
reaus handling women and juveniles, but for those 
working with men and boys as well. The great pos- 
sibilities of such a clearing house having been recog- 
nized, at a joint meeting of representatives of the two 

344 



STATE ORGANIZATIONS 

Mayor's Committees, it was decided to establish a 
clearing house for emploj^ment offices for both men 
and women. It was thought best to place the clearing 
house under the supervision of the director of the state 
public employment bureau, upon which agreement the 
state defense council consented to contribute the 
major portion of the expenses. In order to simplify 
the financial operations of the combined clearing house 
the executive committee of the Mayor's Committee of 
"Women made a lump sum appropriation of $5,000 for 
the year beginning October 1, similar to that of the 
Mayor's Committee on National Defense. The clear- 
ing house for employment offices went into operation 
on October 5, 1917, at 44 East 23d Street, and organ- 
ized for intensive work on all the functions properly 
belonging to a clearing house for noncommercial em- 
ployment bureaus. 

The Committee on Nursing, Miss Anne W. Good- 
rich, chairman. Miss Helen F. Boyd, committee secre- 
tary, was appointed to meet the condition caused by 
the demand for highly trained nurses in the first 
months of war, and the consequent depletion of the 
home service. As the matter was one of equal im- 
portance to the general public and the nursing pro- 
fession, the committee was composed of lay members 
prominently connected with civic interests and of 
nurses representing the nursing organizations. It 
was clearly seen that provision must be made for an 
increased force of thoroughly trained nurses to deal 
with the health problems both at home and abroad 
during the war and during the reconstruction period 
after the war. 

In order to be able to form a policy to cope with the 

345 



AMERICAN WOMEN AND THE WORLD WAR 

situation the committee undertook as its first and most 
important piece of work a survey of the nursing re- 
sources of New York City. This survey was taken in 
July and August. It discovered 17,377 persons en- 
gaged in nursing service, of whom 10,308 are gradu- 
ate nurses, sixty-two per cent, registered. This means 
that there are about three persons engaged in nursing 
service per thousand population in New York City, 
one of whom is a registered graduate nurse. One out 
of every four of these registered nurses is enrolled in 
the Red Cross nursing service and may be called from 
her usual occupation for foreign service at any time. 

During the two months in which the survey was 
made, 414 nurses were withdrawn by the Red Cross 
from their usual duties to army and navy service. 
From present indications, it may be estimated that 
about 1,000 of the total of 1,701 Red Cross nurses 
may be needed during the next year. 

To replace this number, there is a body of 824 pupil 
nurses who will be graduated from the registered 
training schools of the city during 1918. Supple- 
menting this number are many nurses who are being 
freed for other work by an increased body of pupil 
nurses in the training schools. The training schools 
themselves are admitting a possible 1,800 pupils dur- 
ing the year. 

It is undoubtedly true that if the good training 
schools can be filled to their utmost capacity, the city 
can continue to supply the Red Cross nursing service 
with skilled nurses and at the same time keep the hos- 
pitals at home properly manned and the public health 
field adequately covered. As a result of this con- 
elusion, the standing committee on nursing is putting 

346 



STATE ORGANIZATIONS 

this need before the city and state by means of news- 
paper publicity and by addresses to women's clubs, 
colleges and high schools, and their alumna associa- 
tions. In planning this series of talks, the commit- 
tee has had the hearty cooperation of Mrs. William 
Grant Brown in her double capacity as chairman of 
the State Defense Council and president of the New 
York State Federation of Women's Clubs with its 50 
local clubs, and of Mr. Gustav Straubenmiiller, acting 
superintendent of schools in New York City, with the 
result that the committee's letter asking that a day 
be given to the subject of nursing was sent to over 
1,000 women's organizations. 

The committee is cooperating also with the nursing 
committee of the general medical board of the Council 
of National Defense. The Washington committee in 
its campaign of publicity sent an individual let- 
ter to each high school and college graduate of 1917 
throughout the country. The New York committee 
inclosed with the Washington letter a letter offering 
the standing committee on nursing of the Mayor's 
Committee of Women on National Defense as a bureau 
of information to every young woman in New York 
State, who may be interested in nursing. This letter, 
together with a list of registered training schools in 
New York State issued by the standing committee on 
nursing, has been sent to some 3,000 graduates of high 
schools and colleges in New York State. 

The Committee on Food, Miss Mabel Kittredge, 
chairman, Miss Lilla Frick, Food Committee organ- 
izer. Miss Margaret C. Rogers, committee secretary, 
was inaugurated for the purpose of considering the 
plans initiated by federal, state or private agencies 

347 



AMERICAN WOMEN AND THE WORLD WAR 

engaged in food conservation, and, so far as prac- 
ticable, of putting them into operation, either through 
existing or new organizations. It was its purpose also 
to act as a bureau of information where bulletins, 
newspaper clippings and standard printed matter on 
food could be found. Information concerning exist- 
ing organizations dealing with the food problem also 
is given out, and suggestions on food conservation are 
issued through newspapers and other available sources 
of publicity. But the chief work of this committee 
was concerned with the salvaging of food that other- 
wise would have been thrown away at the piers. 

There is a law in New York City which, while pos- 
sibly good in itself, results in a tremendous waste. 
All the fruits and vegetables destined for the markets 
must be examined at the piers and terminals by repre- 
sentatives of the Board of Health. Food must be em- 
bargoed if a certain percentage is bad, although the 
badness is frequently due merely to injury in trans- 
portation. Oranges, grapefruits and lemons are em- 
bargoed if 20 per cent is damaged; berries and small 
fruits if 24 per cent is damaged; and vegetables if 15 
per cent is damaged. The cost and shortage of labor 
and the difficulty in transportation, together with the 
changing market often result in the consignee's re- 
fusal to accept, sort and repack the food sent in from 
the farms — so it is thrown away; for there is no pub- 
lic storage place in New York City, and the small 
amount of terminal space makes it necessary to remove 
food within twenty-four hours. Often as much as 
100,000 pounds a week are thrown away, even though 
a large percentage of that food is frequently good and 
fit for market. 

348 



S'TATE ORGANIZATIONS 

The war and the talk of food conservation brought 
forcibly to the mind of a member of the Women's 
University Club the great wrong of allowing tons of 
food to go to waste on our piers when within a few 
blocks many persons were going without because of 
the high price of food. This condition was brought 
to the attention of the Mayor's Committee of Women 
who asked the standing committee on food to take up 
the question. Although this committee realized it 
was not in a position to solve it, it did attempt during 
the summer to save as much of the food as possible. 
Thus the standing committee on food has carried on 
its main piece of work in a canning kitchen where the 
pier food, after being salvaged, was preserved. 

The work began July 9, 1917, in cooperation with 
the Women's University Club and the Junior League. 
Twenty thousand pounds of good food were salvaged 
from the different docks of New York — all food which 
because of bad packing, shortage of labor, rough han- 
dling, lack of refrigerator cars, congestion, hold-up of 
cars and market conditions, was condemned as partly 
unsound. It was sorted on the piers, transported to 
the large central kitchen and there distributed in three 
ways: (1) sold to the neighbors in its raw state at 
about one-half of the wholesale rate quoted on that 
day; (2) given in either its raw or preserved state in 
exchange for labor at the end of the day; (3) a part 
of the remainder sold at the end of the season in ex- 
change for the accumulated labor of the women 
workers. 

A total of 325 women worked at the canning kitchen 
during the summer. Each worker on registering at 
the kitchen received a time card marked for punching. 

349 



AMERICAN WOMEN AND THE WORLD WAR 

At the end of the day each worker's card was 
punched for every hour of labor, and each punch was 
worth 20 cents. Duplicate cards were kept by the |i 
timekeeper. The tasks given out to the various 
women, who were of every nationality, were in accord 
with their former experience or their quickness in 
learning a new occupation, but all labor was paid at 
the same rate. 

At the end of two months, 8,963 quart jars and 331 
pint jars and jelly glasses had been filled with pre- 
served fruits and vegetables, in addition to 3 barrels 
of sauerkraut and 5 of pickles. The food canned 
represented a cash value in the raw state of $3,122.18. 
The cost of jars, sugar and incidental expenses was 
$1,075.68. Salaries for experts and overhead ex- 
penses amounted to $3,064.12. 

When the season was over the punches on the cards 
were carefully calculated, and each worker was al- 
lowed to select such jars of food as she desired to the 
amount punched on her card. Food worth $1,718.60 
was taken out in this way, leaving about 3,670 jars to 
be sold to any working women who cared to come and 
purchase. 

The committee has been helped in carrying on its 
work by the State and Federal departments of agri- 
culture, which agreed to pay salaries to the amount of 
$3,700. Generous contributions to the amount of 
$5,820 not only carried on the work of salvaging, 
transporting and canning food without a deficit, but 
provided for the extension of the community kitchen 
work with a budget of $2,000. It is hoped to make 
use of rooms on the ground floor of the City College 
building at Twenty-third Street and Lexington Ave- 

350 



STATE ORGANIZATIONS 

nue, where it is proposed to establish a restaurant and 
community kitchen, to continue the preservation of 
food, and carry on an educational campaign that will 
help people to use the foods recommended by Food 
Administrator Hoover. This central kitchen wiU 
have distributing centers in various sections of New 
York. 

The canning of food has not been the chief contribu- 
tion of the committee. The most important result of 
the summer's work has been the opportunity to study 
the pier situation and to pass along the knowledge 
gained to those who have power to stop the abuse 
and to alleviate the terrible waste at the terminals. 
The educational advantage to those who organized the 
kitchen has come in a clearer understanding of com- 
munity work. This knowledge was obtained from the 
foreign women. Every nationality enjoyed the so- 
ciability of the kitchen. No one was turned away, 
and each group contributed in working out the food 
problem from its national point of view. 

The standing committee on food has served as an 
information bureau all summer. It has also investi- 
gated the foods of foreign-born people who find it so 
difficult to substitute the American product for the 
foods not now in the market. 

The Committee on Industry, Miss Amy Aldrich, 
chairman, began an investigation of the replacement 
of men by women in various fields of work. As the 
permanent readjustments were not to occur until after 
the first draft, active investigation was deferred until 
autumn, when it was resumed in cooperation with the 
state committee on women in industry and the Con- 
sumers League. 

351 



AMERICAN WOMEN AND THE WORLD WAR 

The Committee on Publicity, Mrs. Charles L. Tif- 
fany, chairman, Miss Marie de Montalvo, committee 
secretary, has done its work admirably and the sys- 
tem it has employed is worthy of imitation. 

The Committee on Social Welfare, Mrs. V. G. 
Simkhovitch, chairman, Miss Helene PoUak, commit- 
tee secretary, was formed at the request of leading 
social workers and educators of New York City. It 
has taken foreign countries several years to realize 
that social and civic work is as much a part of na- 
tional defense as drilling and marching. New York 
City profited by their experience. 

The work of this committee has fallen naturally into 
four parts, and has been delegated to four sub-com- 
mittees: (1) the sub-committee on recreation for sol- 
diers and sailors, Mrs. Marcus M. Marks, chairman; 
(2) the sub-committee on the protection of girls, Miss 
Stella A. Miner, chairman; (3) the sub-committee on 
the all-day-care of children, Mrs. Howard S. Cans, 
chairman; (4) the sub-committee on service, Mrs. Sid- 
ney Borg, chairman. 

The sub-committee on recreation for soldiers and 
sailors was able to organize within a short time enter- 
tainments and dances in neighborhood centers for Na- 
tional Guardsmen stationed in the armories of the 
city. Later, "send-off day" was celebrated in almost 
every district of the city by festivities in the settle- 
ments and other neighborhood organizations. The 
sub-committee is now acting as a clearing house for 
social organizations which desire to devote part of 
their buildings to clubrooms or entertainment halls 
for enlisted men. This latter piece of work was un- 
dertaken at the request of Mr. Rowland Haynes, di- 

352 



STATE ORGANIZATIONS 

rector of the national service commission of New York 
City. 

The sub-committee on the protection of girls has 
dealt with a problem closely connected with that of 
the soldier and sailor passing through the city — ^the 
problem of the young girl who is easily fascinated by 
a uniform. The sub-committee employed at first two 
and later four women protective officers to care for 
such girls. These officers have patrolled neighbor- 
hoods where armories are situated, parks, and camps 
within the city limits. They have interviewed hun- 
dreds of young girls and have sent or taken most of 
them home. Following the interviews, a visitor act- 
ing upon the information thus obtained calls at their 
homes to verify the data and learn something of the 
family conditions. Cases which need medical atten- 
tion or other special care are then referred to the 
proper agencies. Girls who lack wholesome recreation 
and the benefits of social clubs are referred to the di- 
rector of girls' work under the national service com- 
mission. 

Commissioner Woods has been so impressed with the 
work of the women protective officers that he asked, 
and the board of estimate granted, an appropriation 
for such officers in the police department during 1918. 
The committee feels that this is the most encouraging 
evidence possible of the value of this work. 

The sub-committee on the all-day care of children 
has undertaken to try to solve the problem of caring 
for children whose parents are both forced tc work 
outside of the home because of war conditions. The 
committee has selected one of the poorest districts in 
the city for investigating the cases of these children, 

353 



AMERICAN WOMEN AND THE WORLD WAR 

and a constructive experiment in caring for them in 
connection with the public schools is planned for the 
future. 

The sub-committee on service has constituted itself 
an information bureau for social agencies in war time. 
A registration of the chief social agencies in the city, 
giving information as to where and how the war has 
forced a curtailment of their ordinary activities, is on 
file. A list of all training courses for volunteer so- 
cial workers has been prepared by the committee and 
will be published. 

In trying to deal with the social problems incident 
to the war in a city the size of New York, the com- 
mittee on social welfare as a whole has contented itself 
thus far with undertaking definite pieces of con- 
structive work. Through this method, it is felt that 
light can best be thrown upon the needs, and solutions 
most forcefully worked out. As these experimental 
pieces of work are tried and proved, they will be pre- 
sented to the city and to groups of citizens for de- 
velopment in more extensive fashion. 

With the retirement of Mayor Mitchel the entire 
personnel of the Mayor's Committee was changed. 
Mayor Hylan has asked Mrs. William Randolph 
Hearst to act as chairman of the Woman's Committee 
and to select her own committee. 

North Carolina. Mrs. Eugene Reilley, the very 
capable chairman of the Woman's Committee of the 
Council of National Defense for North Carolina, is 
also a member of the State Council of Defense, having 
been appointed before she was made chairman of the 
Woman 's Committee. Mrs. Reilley is also second vice 
president of the General Federation of Women's 

354 



STATE ORGANIZATIONS 

Clubs. North Carolina furnishes another example of 
commendable cooperation. When the State Council 
heard that the Woman's Committee was planning a 
state conference they asked that the meeting be made 
a joint one, and a splendid meeting of this character 
was held early in October, 1917. 

Of one phase of North Carolina's excellent war 
work Mrs. Reilley says: "We have a cantonment 
here in Charlotte and all the organizations in Char- 
lotte are not only doing their 'bit' to make the sol- 
diers feel at home, but they are doing their utmost. 
There is a dance or a reception or an entertainment 
of some description going on all their free moments. 
The churches and libraries have all provided rest 
rooms with literature, stationery, etc., for their use. 
Everyone takes from two to four soldiers home to 
dinner after church on Sunday. In Liberty Hall 
Chapter D. A. R. we have entertained sixty soldiers at 
Sunday dinner. We have also given a reception to 
the Second Regiment North Dakota Infantry to which 
all the officers and their wives were invited and the 
band played on the lawn. This is a sample of what 
all the women's organizations in town are doing. I 
have had Australia, San Francisco and Boston all 
represented at my table at one meal. 

*'We are also having Girls' Clubs to direct the at- 
tention of the girls to patriotic service. We have a 
law that all girls under twenty unchaperoned shall be 
off the streets by nine o'clock. All soldiers must be 
at the camp at eleven unless a permit is given. The 
very best conditions prevail. The men from the 
Northwest are a splendid lot of men and consequently 
no disorder occurs." 

355 



AMERICAN WOMEN AND THE WORLD WAR 

The first work of the Committee was, of course, or- 
ganization. The work of organizing a large state like 
North Carolina, with its hundreds of counties, is no 
small task, but the North Carolina women are ac- 
complishing it rapidly. The method chosen was ac- 
cording to congressional districts, a member of the 
Executive Committee being assigned to each district. 

The constructive work of the North Carolina Di- 
vision is expressed through several departments and 
committees and the women are making their plans 
not only for the tasks of war but for the tasks of 
peace, and are meeting their duties with wisdom, 
courage and devotion. Mrs. Lindsay Patterson is 
chairman of Food Production and North Carolina has 
a slogan, *'A Garden for Every Home the Year 
Around." North Carolina has been very active in 
food conservation, the county chairman cooperating 
with the county demonstrators of the state agricul- 
tural colleges. The distribution of the food-pledge 
cards was followed by demonstrations in scientific 
methods of canning, drying and preserving food. 
Community canneries have been established in some 
places and in others private classes have been formed. 
In the latter the demonstrators have instructed with 
the understanding that the women having the privi- 
lege of this instruction would in turn give their serv- 
ices in teaching others. Of the food conservation 
work in North Carolina Mrs. Reilley very cleverly 
says: **We have talked and thought food so much 
that we are in great danger of mental indigestion. 
However, since this is the way to win the war, we 
may be preserving peace in family jars — though 
you know some men object to this kind of economy.'* 

356 



STATE ORGANIZATIONS 

Mrs. Leonard Tufts is chairman of Public Health 
and Mrs. Lucy Kobertson is chairman of Child Wel- 
fare, and in both departments valuable work has been 
done. Very creditable also is the work that has been 
done by Mrs. R. J. Reynolds, chairman of Liberty 
Loan, Mrs. A. M. Waddell, chairman of Home and 
Allied Relief, and Mrs. Whiteford Smith, chairman 
of Health and Recreation. Training classes have been 
established for the purpose of instructing women in 
the occupations where there is great need of service. 
Business colleges of the state have cooperated in 
courses in shorthand and typewriting, and the West- 
ern Union Telegraph Company has supplied teachers 
in telegraphy for classes of twenty-five. Miss Mary 
Arrington has charge of this work. One interesting 
feature of the work of the North Carolina Division is 
the way in which the chairman keeps in close touch 
with the sub-chairmen of the state and with the State 
Council of Defense and the entire work has been 
along most constructive lines. 

The officers are: chairman, Mrs. Eugene Reilley, 
Charlotte; first vice chairman, Mrs. Palmer Jerman, 
Raleigh; second vice chairman, Mrs. William N. 
Reynolds, Winston-Salem; honorary chairmen, Mrs. 
Thomas W. Bickett, Raleigh; Mrs. Josephus Daniels, 
Raleigh; Mrs. Robert R. Cotten, Bruce; secretary, 
Mrs. Lyman Cotten, Salisbury; treasurer, Mrs. Eu- 
gene Sternberger. Chairmen of standing committees 
are: Registration, Mrs. W. B. Waddell, Henderson; 
Food Production, Mrs. Lindsey-Patterson, Winston- 
Salem ; Food Conservation and Home Economics, Mrs. 
Jane McKimmon, Raleigh ; Women in Industry, Mrs. 
F. C. Abbot, Charlotte; Child Welfare, Dr. Margaret 

357 



AMERICAN WOMEN AND THE WORLD WAR 

Castex Sturgis, Lenoir; Social Service, Miss Gertrude 
Weil, Goldsboro; Education, Miss Mary Arrington, 
Rocky Mount; Home and Foreign Relief, Mrs. A. M. 
Waddell, Wilmington; Health and Recreation, Mrs. 
Whiteford Smith, Asheville ; Publicity, Miss Julia A. 
Thorne, Ashboro; Finance, Mrs. Felix Harvey, Kins- 
ton ; Public Health, Mrs. Leonard Tufts, Pinehurst. 



CHAPTER XXV 
NORTH DAKOTA AND OHIO 

W. C. T. U. and Suffrage Association initiate war work 
in North Dakota — Eighty towns completely organized 
— Stirring letter from State Chairman — Work of 
women in cities of Ohio — How state defense work is 
organized — What women have done in Cincinnati, 
Cleveland and Toledo. 

North Dakota. The club women of North Dakota 
met on April 24, 1917, with representatives of the 
State Woman's Christian Temperance Union and the 
State Suffrage Association for the purpose of plan- 
ning what part the clubs of the state should take in 
patriotic aid. Feeling that there would be much du- 
plication of effort among the many women's organiza- 
tions of the state, the presidents of the state W. C. T. 
U. and the Suffrage league were called to the meeting. 
The presidents of the three organizations agreed to 
serve as a central committee and to urge the coopera- 
tion of their organizations along three lines of work 
with a state chairman for each line of work, namely, 
to work along lines designated by the Red Cross, to 
increase food products and to eliminate waste, and 
for certified registration of women. In May a call 
came to the state from the woman's committee of the 
Council of National Defense asking Mrs. Frank White 
of Valley City to serve as temporary chairman and 

359 



AMERICAN WOMEN AND THE WORLD WAR 

call a meeting of the heads of all women's organiza- 
tions in the state for organization for work under 
their direction. This was done June 1. Eight 
women's organizations were represented and Mrs. 
Mary D. Weible represented the State Council of De- 
fense. They perfected an organization to be known 
as the Woman's Committee of the Council of National 
Defense, North Dakota division, and simply enlarged 
upon the organization of April 24 by retaining the 
officers and adding three departments of work with 
chairmen for each. The name of Mrs. Mary D. Weible 
was added as vice-president. 

The State Federation, the Grand Chapter 0. E. S., 
Daughters of Rebekahs, and Woman 's Christian Tem- 
perance Union contributed to the support of the work. 
Within a short time eighty towns reported complete 
organizations. Especially interesting and successful 
was the plan followed by Mrs. 0. L. Saterton, of 
Grand Forks, who sent out over two hundred circular 
letters, over a thousand leaflets of instructions for 
Red Cross sewing; placed samples in circulation and 
answered hundreds of inquiries concerning the work 
at a time when information was hard to get. Many 
circles began work under her instruction and later 
formed auxiliaries or chapters. 

Mrs. Clark W. Kelley, of Devil 's Lake, had charge of 
food production, and many bulletins were sent out 
urging the necessity of planting garden seed. The 
Committee cooperated with the home economics work- 
ers of the Agricultural College Extension Department. 
Mrs. Kelley urged garden club work and encouraged 
the boys and girls to raise sheep and pigs. 

Miss May McDonald, chairman Home Economics in 

360 



STATE ORGANIZATIONS 

Extension, North Dakota Agricultural College, Fargo, 
had charge of food conservation, and from May 1 to 
August 1, 1917, held 296 demonstrations with a total 
attendance of 26,962. She gave out more than 100,- 
000 specially prepared letters, and distributed 3,000 
bulletins. 

Mrs. J. E. Peatherstone, Valley City, who had 
charge of registration, was very successful, as was 
Mrs. J. E. Stevens Lawton, who had charge of health 
and welfare of children. 

The letters sent by the state chairman, Mrs. Vick, 
are so ringing in their appeal and seem so vital and 
impelling, it is no wonder they brought results. Who 
could resist such a call as this : 

There never was a greater challenge to the womanhood 
of the country than that made by the President of the 
United States to women for voluntary enrollment in this 
league for food conservation. North Dakota women must 
answer the call. We must use our ingenuity as never 
before. 

Will you call a committee meeting of the heads of all 
women's organizations in your community and plan a rous- 
ing "Food Conservation" meeting? Plan the best program 
possible. Arrange for an exchange of economy ideas. 
Have a committee make posters to be distributed for 
kitchen decoration. Have good speakers or good papers 
read. If possible, distribute bulletins. Have patriotic 
music. Make certain that every woman attends, if auto- 
mobile service is necessary to get her. Establish a nursery 
to take care of babies and young children so that they may 
not be an excuse. Overcome every obstacle. When the 
meeting is over, report it to as many newspapers as pos- 
sible and lend your ideas and enthusiasm to all who may 
read. Make certain that every woman signs a Hoover 

361 



AMERICAN WOMEN AND THE WORLD WAR 

card. I hope every North Dakota home will display a 
Hoover window tag. The pledge cards may be secured 
from the office of the County Superintendent of Schools. 

Will you please do this at once and report your meeting 
to Mrs. Clendenning. 

Relying on you^ I am, etc. 

Later Mrs. Vick sent out another letter in which she 
said; 

How shall North Dakota rank with those of other states 
in this work? It depends upon the women of our various 
communities. 

Will local committees already named please meet at once, 
consult with the mayor of your community or city, and 
call a meeting of all of your people? Will you not or- 
ganize a "Patriotic Club" consisting of men, women and 
children? Will you please name departments of work 
suited to your locality? Will your Secretary please report 
your organization to Mrs. Clendenning at Wimbledon? 
Both men and women are receiving directions for work. 
Would it not be well for all to meet together and correlate 
all this? Have you somebody in your community who will 
guide the work of your children? They should have their 
small gardens, they should be making scrap books, they 
should be directed in various lines of activity that will instill 
patriotism and make them feel that they are doing their 
bit. Arrange for a patriotic meeting of the club at stated 
times where reports of the various departments of work 
should be reported. Patriotic speeches should be made. 
There should be much singing. Children should appear on 
these programs in patriotic drills. The Chairmen of our 
state departments of work are ready to aid you. We urge 
the formation of Red Cross organizations. 

Miss McDonald and Miss Newton are doing a wonderful 
work in the talks and canning demonstrations they are giv- 

362 



STATE ORGANIZATIONS 

ing. Is every woman in your community realizing the need 
of being present at these meetings? 

Please organize at once. Report organization and work 
planned to Mrs. Clendenning. She will report to me and to 
the Woman's Committee at Washington, D. C. 

The officers are: chairman, Mrs. H. G. Vick, Cava- 
lier; vice chairman, Mrs. Elizabeth Preston Ander- 
son, Fargo ; vice chairman, Mrs. Mary D arrow Weible, 
Fargo; secretary, Mrs. Grace Clendenning, Wimble- 
don; treasurer, Mrs. Maud Stanley, Casselton. De- 
partment Chairmen : Registration, Mrs. Frank Wliite, 
Valley City; Food Production, Mrs. Clark Kelly, 
Devils Lake; Food Conservation, Miss Mae McDon- 
ald, Fargo; Red Cross, Mrs. 0. L. Sateren, Grand 
Forks; Protection of Women Workers, Miss Aldyth 
Ward, Bismarck; Health and Welfare of Children, 
Mrs. J. E. Stevens, Lawton. 

The spirit of North Dakota is shown by the attitude 
of Rev. Kenneth J. Maclnnes of that state, who offers 
to visit every family in a parish seventeen miles long 
and eight miles wide and personally register the 
women. Pastor Maclnnes preaches in the Forest 
River and Ardoch churches and writes the Woman's 
Committee of the Council of National Defense that he 
is too old for the trenches and has no boys, but he 
** feels a great debt to Uncle Sam — God bless him" — 
and he offers his services to his country. The women 
of his parish gave a picnic under the trees of Walsh 
County, North Dakota, and raised $653 for the Red 
Cross. **I am convinced that nothing will bring 
larger results in the end," said Mrs. Joseph Lamar of 
Georgia, member of the Woman's Committee, ''than 
just such gatherings as these, and they should be en- 

363 



AMERICAN WOMEN AND THE WORLD WAR 

couraged. The Committee sent 200 pledge cards to 
the pastor to be distributed along the seventeen-mile 
road of his parish. 

Ohio. While the organization of the women of 
Ohio under the Woman's Committee may not be as 
closely knit as that in some other states, it is doubtful 
if the women in any state have worked harder or ac- 
complished more than have the women of Ohio, espe- 
cially in the large cities of the state. Ohio is a very 
strongly organized club state, the Federated Clubs 
being one of the largest and strongest organizations in 
the state, and having among its membership a won- 
derful cohesion. In addition to the Federated Clubs 
there are many other organizations of various kinds 
doing constructive patriotic work and hundreds of 
unorganized women are also enlisting in the Nation's 
great army of women. 

The State Council of Defense of Ohio was organized 
somewhat differently from that of other states. The 
Governor appointed a war cabinet of twenty-eight 
members without legislative action. There is also a 
very active food commission which is state-wide and 
which operates through the state university. This 
commission controls thirty-six farm bureaus, and it is 
under the commission that Miss Georgia White of the 
state university has carried on with signal success the 
educational side of the food conservation program. 
The Governor has also appointed a food and crop 
commissioner in each of the eighty-five counties. 
Notable also is the work of Mr. Croxton of the State 
Council, who heads the Department of Labor and In- 
dustry and through whose efforts twenty-one employ- 
ment divisions have been established throughout the 

364 



STATE ORGANIZATIONS 

state with a clearing house and a general director in 
the state capital. This committee handles all labor, 
male and female, through its free employment centers, 
and 27,000 people were placed during the month of 
July, 1917. 

The state chairman, Mrs. Zimmerman, conducts her 
work through Mr. Croxton and through Mr. Howell 
Wright, Executive Secretary of the State Council of 
Defense. Mr. Wright made a survey of county or- 
ganizations and conditions in order to proceed intelli- 
gently with the organization of both men and women 
for war work. Ohio was not prompt to undertake a 
complete registration as was undertaken in other states. 
But the State Council went on record as favoring a 
compulsory registration of men and women at "some 
future date.'' Dr. Hollingshead, head of the Child 
Hygiene Department under the State Public Health 
Board, has done some very interesting constructive 
work. Both Dr. Hollingshead and Miss White have 
great ability and are full of enthusiasm for their re- 
spective departments. They both know conditions at 
first hand all over the state and their experience is of 
great value. The State Division is recognized as the 
Woman's Auxiliary to the State Council. Stationery 
is provided and Miss White and Dr. Hollingshead 
and other officials of the Woman's Committee are 
invited to work under the State Council. 

The work in Cincinnati, though difficult, has been 
growing steadily in value and interest. Miss Shillito 
has been doing a commendable work in connection 
with the camps. The mayor of Cincinnati has ap- 
pointed six women on his City Defense Committee 
and the women of the city have worked effectively in 

365 



AMERICAN WOMEN AND THE WORLD WAR 

all branches of war service, notably the Red Cross 
and the Navy League. A splendid work has been 
done in the schools of Cincinnati where penny lunch- 
eons were served and where free extension courses in 
telegraphy were given to over 300 girls. Miss Strong 
has organized the home economics work of the city 
and Miss Edith Campbell trained 125 women as visi- 
tors for Red Cross civilian relief. 

The women of Cleveland, in forming the unit for 
the Ohio Division of the Woman's Committee, adopted 
much of the program for conservation and thrift 
which had been started by the Suffrage Society, as 
well as that undertaken by the Consumers' League 
under Miss Jones for the women in industry. By 
this wise course none of the good work undertaken 
was abated, but was merely centralized in the Cleve- 
land unit. The women of Cleveland continued and 
intensified the excellent work they had been doing 
along many lines, including investigation into the 
high cost of milk, consideration of new ordinances for 
the improvement of markets, the use of volunteers in 
local charities, classes for training such volunteers, 
etc. These women formulated very carefully their 
plans for the training of registrars, so that registra- 
tion might be done with a maximum of efficiency. 
Cleveland is wonderfully well organized along lines 
of charity federation and social welfare. Expert 
leaders in these fields offered their cooperation most 
heartily in the newly organized war work. 

The work in Toledo under Miss Fannie Harnit is 
deserving of especial mention. To Miss Harnit be- 
longs the credit of having organized the first great 
patriotic society of women in the city. As early as 

366 



STATE ORGANIZATIONS 

March, 1917, she called a meeting of fifteen of the 
heads of local societies, including the State Federa- 
tion of Women's Clubs, the D. A. R., and others. 
Each of these fifteen women was asked to choose ten 
representative women from her organization to decide 
on a plan, and from this larger meeting developed a 
patriotic league for woman's service which later be- 
came affiliated with the National League for Woman 's 
Service. This organization, perfected as it was in 
wards and precincts, formed the basis for the prac- 
tical and splendid war work that has since been done 
by Toledo women. The Patriotic League received the 
highest indorsement of the men of the community and 
rendered great assistance to the Red Cross in its va- 
rious undertakings. A great deal was also accom- 
plished in food conservation, in the Liberty Loan cam- 
paign and in every other branch of war service for 
women. So active was this organization and so prac- 
tical was the work it was doing that it was continued 
as the Toledo unit of the Woman's Committee, and 
the constructive work already begun developed in 
every direction. 

One of the most notable contributions the Toledo 
women have made to war work was their united serv- 
ice with the men in the establishment of 27,000 war 
gardens in the city. One garden of 17 acres was 
divided into 110 plots which were worked by 110 in- 
dividuals. 

The officers are: chairman, Mrs. George Zimmer- 
man, Fremont ; vice chairman, Mrs. Samuel B. Sneath, 
Tiffin; vice chairman, Mrs. Laurence Maxwell, Cin- 
cinnati; vice chairman, Mrs. W. 0. Thompson, Co- 
lumbus ; vice chairman, Mrs. Malcolm McBride, Cleve- 

367 



AMERICAN WOMEN AND THE WORLD WAR 

land; secretary, Mrs. Elizabeth Wolf, Dayton; treas- 
urer, Mrs. Clarence E. Mack, Cincinnati. Food Ad- 
ministration : Miss Edna N. White, 0. S. University, 
Columbus; Women in Industry: Miss Myrta Jones, 
Cleveland ; Child Welfare : Dr. Frances M. Hollings- 
head, Ohio State Board of Health, Columbus ; Liberty 
Loan: Mrs. Minerva Kline Brooks, Cleveland. 



CHAPTER XXVI 

OKLAHOMA, PENNSYLVAI^IA, OREGON AND 
RHODE ISLAND 

Oklahoma women wide awake — Work to eliminate 
commercial waste — Efforts in interest of families of 
enlisted men — Pennsylvania's wonderful record in war 
work — Chester County model for the nation — Women's 
organizations in Oregon constitute Woman's Commit- 
tee — Club women active — Rhode Island women distin- 
guish themselves by taking military census. 

Oklahoma. *'The Oklahoma women are very wide 
awake and are doing their 'bit' with willing hands 
and happy hearts in the service of their country," 
said Mrs. Eugene B. Lawson, of Nowata, chairman 
for Oklahoma. 

Practically every county in the state is organized. 
Besides a chairman in each county, there is a vice 
chairman located in Oklahoma City, Mrs. E. Z. Wal- 
lower; Miss Gertrude Strahl has charge of Muskogee 
and Mrs. C. E. Lahman of Tulsa; Tulsa and Oklahoma 
City established exchange markets which were strik- 
ingly successful. 

Books and magazines were sent to the soldiers in 
training at Fort Sill (Lawton) Oklahoma, and in each 
county the soldiers who have left for training have 
been given entertainments, equipment kits and every- 
thing that seemed due them in recognition of their 
patriotic undertaking. 

369 



AMERICAN WOMEN AND THE WORLD WAR 

At the state and county fairs patriotic demonstra- 
tion day was observed, with patriotic speaking, etc., 
and the Council of Defense and the Woman's Com- 
mittee worked very harmoniously over the state in 
perfecting the organization of defense work. 

Oklahoma has done exceptional work along four 
lines as follows: (a) food production and conserva- 
tion; (b) publicity for patriotism; (c) maintaining 
school standards; (d) Liberty Loan. The work is 
financed by the State Council. 

Particularly effective was the work of the women 
of Oklahoma City under Mrs. Wallower. The es- 
tablishment of a central market where unsaleable sup- 
plies were sold at a very low figure to people of small 
means, and aggressive steps to eliminate commercial 
waste, were among the early enterprises of the Okla- 
homa City women. All of the wholesale and retail 
stores of the city were canvassed. Surplus fruit and 
vegetables which otherwise would be thrown away, 
were procured at a time convenient to the grocers, 
when a committee of young women, headed by Miss 
Ethelyn Johnson, called in their automobiles for the 
produce and took it to a central place. There the 
food was sorted and arranged and sold one evening 
of the week at a very low price. The growers were 
asked to cooperate in this plan which was designed to 
aid them also. Farmers who had fruit and vegetables 
spoiling on the ground, and who were willing to do- 
nate them, were asked to notify the Committee. 

In connection with the elimination of commercial 
waste, a committee made an investigation of the sale 
of bread in Oklahoma City. This information was 
requested by Dr. Stratton D. Brooks, the federal food 

370 



STATE ORGANIZATIONS 

administrator for Oklahoma, who in turn passed it 
on to Mr. Hoover. 

It was ascertained that the prevailing loaf size by 
weight is supposed to be a pound, but it varies from 
14 to 19 ounces, and that this loaf sells for 10 cents. 
A larger loaf varies in weight from 20 to 23 ounces. 
It is known as the pound and a quarter loaf and sells 
for 15 cents retail. There are no chain stores or de- 
partment stores selling bread so far as the committee 
could ascertain. 

The dispatch and thoroughness with which the 
Oklahoma City women organized is inspirational. 
The city committee is organized along the following 
lines : finance, economics and food conservation, regis- 
tration and war relief work. One of the most inter- 
esting and important of its enterprises was the es- 
tablishment of an educational department and food 
facts bureau, to fill a practical need. To carry on 
this work, Mrs. Wallower selected officers — an execu- 
tive board, consisting of chairmen of various commit- 
tees. The committee encouraged the planting of com- 
munity gardens, the utilization of vacant lots and 
home gardens in back yards. It established canning 
stations throughout the city to care for vegetables that 
otherwise might be wasted, and to comply with Presi- 
dent Wilson's call to use what is grown near by and 
thus to save transportation, and to have food to do- 
nate this coming winter where there is a shortage. 
These canning stations are open to the farmer, the 
amateur or the professional, who may bring food there 
to be canned. In the work of food conservation, the 
city is divided into neighborhood districts under the 
leadership of a committee of chairmen, of which Mrs. 

371 



AMERICAN WOMEN AND THE WORLD WAR 

Thomas G. Chambers is the head. These centers are 
presided over by local chairmen, who, through a 
house-to-house canvass, draw in the unorganized 
women until each center is thoroughly representative 
of the locality. These workers acquaint those not al- 
ready informed of the world situation, and particu- 
larly the food shortage. They tell the people definite 
things to do, and wherever possible, show the unini- 
tiated how to do them. District meetings are held to 
which women from the central bureau will go to give 
short, interesting talks, and when possible, practical 
demonstrations are added. In this capacity, the com- 
mittee sought the cooperation of the board of educa- 
tion, in order that the schools with their domestic 
science equipment might be available. 

The war relief committee was formed through the 
agency of the woman's committee. This committee 
undertook to make a list of the married men who are 
in active service, so that any of their families left 
without support might receive assistance. Relief is 
also given visiting soldiers who may be stranded. 

The state officers are: chairman, Mrs. Eugene B. 
Lawson, Nowata; vice chairman, Mrs. E. Z. Wallower, 
Oklahoma City; vice chairman. Miss Gertrude Strahl, 
Muskogee; vice chairman, Mrs. C. E. Lahman, Tulsa; 
secretary, Mrs. J. A. Burns, Nowata; treasurer, Mrs. 
Lee Clinton, Tulsa. Information and Publicity : Miss 
Edith Johnson, Oklahoma City; Registration: Mrs. 
Tom Hope, Ada; Child Welfare: Dr. Leila E. Ander- 
son, Oklahoma City; Liberty Loan: Mrs. C. N. Ames, 
Oklahoma City; Home and Foreign Relief: Mrs. G. 
A. Brown, Mangum; Finance: Mrs. Lee Clinton, 
Tulso; Speakers' Bureau: Mrs. Tom Hope, Ada. 

372 



STATE ORGANIZATIONS 

Pennsylvania, The war work of the women of 
Pennsylvania furnishes an exceedingly interesting 
chapter in the history of America's war activities. 
There are a number of large well-organized defense 
and war relief organizations in the state, each of 
which maintains its individuality and all of which 
are coordinated under the Pennsylvania Division of 
the Council of National Defense. One of the most 
important of these is the Committee of Public Safety 
for the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the function 
of which is to provide for the safety of the Common- 
wealth in time of war. Among other things it is to 
give aid to all forms of enlistment for the army and 
navy; to bring about unified action in behalf of all 
nonmilitary and semimilitary organizations, and to 
consider with the utmost care the state's industrial 
resources and transportation facilities with respect to 
availability and importance to the nation in any 
crisis of its activities. 

The Pennsylvania Division of the Woman's Com- 
mittee of the Council of National Defense has har- 
moniously and enthusiastically come under the plan 
of organization suggested by the National Woman's 
Committee at Washington. It has stated its particu- 
lar function and the way in which these functions will 
be carried out briefly and clearly and the information 
in printed form has been broadly distributed to the 
women of the state. The chairman of the Committee 
is Mrs. J. Willis Martin. The vice chairmen are: 
Mrs. John C. Groome, Mrs. Edward S. Lindsey, Miss 
Ann McCormick, Mrs. John 0. Miller, Mrs. Thomas 
Robins, and Mrs. Edward P. Stotesbury. Mrs. H. S. 
Prentiss Nichols is secretary and Miss Helen Fleisher 

373 



AJVIERICAN WOMEN AND THE WORLD WAE 

is treasurer. The Department chairmen are as fol- 
lows : Registration ; Mrs. Walter King Sharpe ; Food 
Production: Mrs. Louis Piollet; Food Conservation: 
Mrs. Charles M. Lea; Women in Industry: Mrs. 
Thomas Robins ; Child Welfare : Mrs. Edwin L. Mat- 
tern; Maintenance of Existing Social Agencies: Mrs. 
Helen Glenn Tyson; Liberty Loan: Mrs. John L. 
Miller ; Home and Foreign Relief : Mrs. Reed A. Mor- 
gan; Health and Recreation: Mrs. John Gribbel. 

Fifty-four counties in Pennsylvania have perfect 
working organizations, each county being organized 
under the same departments as the state. Chester 
County is called the Model County of Pennsylvania 
and the chairman of this county, ^Miss Martha G. 
Thomas, has done an especially valuable work. 

The American Red Cross in Pennsylvania is divided 
into three main classes. The Administrative Division 
includes the enrollment of members in all branches 
of the service and also includes extension work for 
the Red Cross, such as cooperation with other societies 
and the organization of branches and auxiliaries. 
The Department of Military Relief covers the supply 
service. The educational work includes first aid for 
men and women, home care of the sick, etc. Another 
branch of this department has to do with military 
units, including base hospitals, motor ambulances, 
training and sanitation, etc. The Department of Civ- 
ilian Relief is organized to provide for the dependent 
families of enlisted men in all branches of the mili- 
tary service of the country. There is also a Commit- 
tee on Town and Country Nursing. In the work of 
all these departments the women have, of course, had 
a very large share. 

374 



STATE ORGANIZATIONS 

The National League for Woman's Service is 
strongly organized in Pennsylvania. The chairman is 
Mrs. Edgar W. Baird. Mrs. James Starr, Jr., is vice 
chairman, Mrs. William Gray Warden, secretary, and 
Mrs. Henry S. Jeanes, treasurer. Mrs. Thomas Rob- 
ins is state chairman for Industry. The activities 
of the League are the same as those of the Leagues 
throughout the country. 

Another organization doing extensive war work is 
the Pennsylvania Railroad Women's Division for 
War Relief, of which Mrs. George Dallas Dixon is 
chairman, Mrs. William Wallace, Atterbury, vice 
chairman, Mrs. Lewis Neilson, secretary, and Mrs. 0. 
J. DeRousse, treasurer. The functions of the or- 
ganization are to organize the women of families of 
Pennsylvania Railroad employees, and others for 
preparedness in the event of war ; to be ready to work 
effectively for the relief of suffering; and to be 
ready, in so far as possible, to facilitate the solution 
of the labor problems of such a crisis by being trained 
to take the places of men employees who have been and 
may be called to the service of their country. This 
work is being accomplished through eight cooperating 
departments with a director for each. There are 
approximately 3,000 members. The work follows the 
lines of the Pennsylvania Railroad, with units in 
Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Delaware and Maryland, 
and in the cities of Washington and New York. 

The Philadelphia section of the Navy League of 
the United States has done a great deal of valuable 
work. The honorary chairman is Mrs. Alexander 
Van Rensselaer. Mrs. Moncure Robinson is chair- 
man, Mrs. Horatio Gates Lloyd, treasurer. 

375 "^ 



AMERICAN WOMEN AND THE WORLD WAR 

The Emergency Aid of Pennsylvania, one of the 
most effective of the war societies in America, has 
headquarters in Philadelphia and branches in various 
parts of the state. It acts as a clearing house in 
Pennsylvania for relief work at home and abroad, and 
was officially appointed by Governor Martin G. Brum- 
baugh as agency to receive communications and sup- 
plies of all kinds for the soldiers of Pennsylvania. 

Pennsylvania has active representatives and work- 
ing committees connected with numerous relief or- 
ganizations. Among these are the Allied Arts Com- 
mittee, Mrs. Edward K. Rowland, chairman; The 
American Ambulance Committee, Mrs. George 
Wharton Pepper, chairman; The Armenian Commit- 
tee, Mrs. George R. Lorimer, chairman; the Belgian 
.Helief Committee, Mrs. Bayard Henry, chairman; 
The British Committee, Mrs. E. Burd Brubb, chair- 
man; The British- American Committee, Mrs. Robert 
E. Strawbridge, chairman; The Food Economy Com- 
mittee, Mrs. Charles M. Lea, chairman; The French 
War Relief Committee, Mrs. Cornelius Stevenson, 
chairman; The Food for France Fund, Mrs. Rodman 
E. Griscom, chairman; Home Relief Division, Mrs. 
John C. Groome, chairman; Italian Committee, Mrs. 
Benjamin Miller, chairman; Montenegrin Committee, 
Mrs. John C. Groome, chairman; Motor Messenger 
Service, Mrs. Thomas L. Elwyn, chairman; Overseas 
Committee, Mrs. Edward K. Rowland, chairman; 
Polish Relief Committee, Mrs. Robert von Mo- 
schzisker, chairman; Russian Committee, Mrs. Wil- 
liam Ellis Scull, chairman; Serbian Committee, Miss 
Nina Lea, chairman; Surgical Dressings Committee, 
Mrs. Rodman E. Griscom, chairman. 

376 



STATE ORGANIZATIONS 

Chester County, Pennsylvania, has been called the 
model county of America so far as organization is 
concerned. The leaders in Chester County modestly 
disclaim this title but the story is worth telling, and 
if other counties in America have claims to this honor 
it will probably inspire them to come forth and an- 
nounce it. The story of the organization of Chester 
County is best told by Miss Emily T. Hoopes, secre- 
tary: 

It happened that an organization known as the Com- 
munity Movement had developed here, the plan of which 
was very similar to the Woman's Committee of the Council 
of National Defense, so that last May when the State Di- 
vision organized we were ready to proceed at once under 
their direction. 

The history of this Community Movement is interesting. 
We have here at West Chester a County Fair annually in 
the late summer at which there has always been a Day 
Nursery for the babies whose mothers could not come to 
the Fair without them. In 1916 owing to the epidemic of 
Infantile Paralysis, this tent was not needed for this pur- 
pose. Two or three of the progressive women of the Com- 
munity evolved the idea of using the tent for an exhibition 
of the work of the women of Chester County. They there- 
fore built booths and asked every woman's organization to 
make exhibits of posters or any visual demonstration of 
their work. A large number responded. Side by side the 
Peace and Preparedness, the Suffragists and Anti-Suffra- 
gists showed their activities. The women themselves were 
amazed to find all that was going on in the County. 

As a result they decided to have a series of "Get To- 
gether" luncheons at which speakers from outside addressed 
from two hundred to two hundred and fifty women, gath- 
ered from all over the County, on subjects on which they 
could unite. 

377 



AMERICAN WOMEN AND THE WORLD WAR 

Great enthusiasm developed, the outcome of which was a 
Child Welfare Week at the New Century Club House, West 
Chester. In the basement there were again exhibits by 
thirty different organizations interested in welfare work 
of different sorts. In the afternoons was held a series 
of meetings addressed by speakers of national standing 
from the Russell Sage Foundation, from the Children's 
Bureau at Washington, and in fact from any organization 
which was doing the best work for the care of children. 

Again a further step was taken and it was decided to 
keep a rather loose organization with a permanent secre- 
tary and a chairman chosen at each meeting. The resi- 
dents of County Organizations of women forming the Coun- 
cil to be known as the Community Movement. So many 
lines of work opened up that a Field Secretary was em- 
ployed for two months. We were in this state the first of 
June, and because we so nearly approximated the Woman's 
Committee of the Council of National Defense we dissolved 
the Community Movement and reorganized under the 
Woman's Committee. 

We are in the process of organizing the fifty-seven town- 
ships and thirteen boroughs and one city into Units of this 
Committee. So far we have nine boroughs, twenty-two 
townships and one city organized. We are rapidly com- 
pleting the organization and by the time winter sets in ex- 
pect to have even the remote townships organized. 

The work multiplied so it was found necessary to take 
offices, to employ a secretary and a stenographer. Several 
of the Departments already have constructive programs 
in partial operation. The Food Conservation Department 
was very active during the summer and we are now empha- 
sizing the work of Registration and Liberty Loan. We try 
to keep flexible yet active and the fact that the Public 
Safety Committee of Chester County turned over to us the 
Campaign of the Hoover Food Cards, and asked our co- 
operation when the Food Conservation Train came to West 

378 



STATE ORGANIZATIONS 

Chester; that the County Superintend^t of Schools has ap- 
pealed to us to help solve the serious problem of the de- 
creased attendance of the rural schools owing to the demand 
for the boys and girls on the farm, makes us feel that heavy 
responsibilities rest upon us. 

The project is financed privately as there is no pro- 
vision for the Woman's Committee. The effort is to se- 
cure contributions of a moderate size from a number of 
people scattered throughout the County for the first year. 
After that time some plan for regular income will be made 
if we prove, as we believe, that we are needed in times of 
Peace as well as in times of War. 

Oregon. Presidents of all women's organizations 
in the state constitute the executive board of Oregon's 
Woman's Committee of the Council of National De- 
fense. The organization is on a good working basis 
and there has been a hearty response to every appeal 
the committee has sent out. 

Within a short time after war was declared The 
Oregon Federation of Women's Clubs, Mrs. Charles 
H. Castner, president, sent out letters to the clubs 
of the state and received responses from over 140 
clubs. This letter was in the interest of food con- 
servation. This work of the Oregon women presented 
an interesting phase of war work. The State Agri- 
cultural College made a complete census of the labor 
requirements of the farmers of the state, and enlisted 
all school boys not of military age, or not possessing 
military qualifications, in a working reserve, known as 
the United States Boys' Working Eeserve. The plan 
was to place these boys on farms as they are re- 
quired, and as conditions warrant. The State Fed- 
eration was assigned an important part in the work, 

379 



AMERICAN WOMEN AND THE WORLD WAR 

in that it was asked to check up on housing, living 
and general conditions existing on farms where these 
boys are to be placed. This is to give to their parents 
the assurance that they will be well cared for. The 
work was a very important one and the Oregon 
women did it with pronounced success. A committee 
was named in each county. A number of reliable 
and efficient women were appointed by the president 
of each club at the request of the state president, 
and these women placed themselves at the disposal of 
the county agriculturist. The Federation pledged it- 
self, when war was declared, to do any service within 
its power and the pledge was conscientiously kept. 

When the Woman's Committee of the Council of 
National Defense was organized in Oregon, Mrs. 
Charles H. Castner was made chairman and she im- 
mediately sent out a stirring appeal to the women in 
her state in the interest of registration. Hoover 
pledges, and other lines of work suggested by the 
Woman's Committee at Washington. The Commit- 
tee received financial assistance from the State Coun- 
cil of Defense. The Women's Christian Temperance 
Union of Oregon has done especially effective war 
work. 

The officers are: chairman, Mrs. Charles H. 
Castner, Hood River; 1st vice chairman, Mrs. Jennie 
M. Kemp, Portland; secretary, Mrs. C. F. Fisher, 
Portland; treasurer, Miss Julia Cogswill, Portland; 
vice chairmen, presidents of all women's organiza- 
tions of the state. 

Rhode Island. The women of Rhode Island dis- 
tinguished themselves and rendered valuable patriotic 
service in the taking of a military census of the 

380 



STATE ORGANIZATIONS 

state. The National League for Woman's Service was 
organized early in April, 1917, with Mrs. Rush Sturges 
as chairman. On April 22 this organization received 
a letter from Colonel Webb, who had been appointed 
by the Governor of Rhode Island to direct a military 
census which the Legislature had by vote decided to 
take. This census was planned to include all men 
sixteen years old or over and it was thought such a 
census would be of value in checking up conscription 
figures. In his letter to the League Colonel Webb 
asked the women to assist in taking this census and 
stated that 2,500 census takers would be needed. The 
women were quite willing to accede to his request 
but they asked that women also be included in the 
military census. The work proceeded on this basis, 
the state authorities paying all expenses, printing 
blanks, etc., and the women organizing and taking 
the census. The state was divided into districts, 200 
enumerators being allowed to each section. The 
women in charge of the census selected the best or- 
ganized women's organizations in the state and asked 
their active cooperation, which was cheerfully given. 
These organizations were the Congress of Mothers, 
the Federation of Clubs and the Suffrage League. 
These organizations in turn selected from among 
their own leaders women whom they knew to be effi- 
cient and capable and by this means the very best 
women of the state were in charge of the work. The 
census was taken on June 11, 1917. 

The appointment of the Woman's Committee in 
Washington and its subsequent organization by states 
came when the women of Rhode Island were in the 
midst of preparations for the census. They wisely 

381 



AMERICAN WOMEN AND THE WORLD WAR 

concluded not to interrupt the organization under 
which this work was being done so effectively until 
the completion of the task in hand. Later, however, 
the National League for Woman's Service, of which 
Mrs. Rush Sturges was chairman, voted to coordinate 
its work under the Woman 's Committee of the Council 
of National Defense, Mrs. Sturges having been made 
chairman of the Rhode Island Woman's Committee. 
The state is well organized under the Woman's Com- 
mittee and a great deal has been accomplished in food 
conservation and other war programs outlined at 
Washington. Mrs. William M. Congdon, of Provi- 
dence, is secretary of the organization. She was 
formerly president of the Federated Clubs of the 
state and has brought experience and sound judgment 
to the newer organization. The vice chairman is 
Mrs. Horace G. Bissell, the 2nd vice chairman, Mrs. 
E. S. Moulton, and the treasurer, Mrs. Clara E. Craig. 
As evidence of how the men at the head of impor- 
tant affairs connected with war work depend on the 
assistance of women, the letter from Colonel Webb, 
referred to above, is interesting. This letter was re- 
ceived by Mrs. Hollister, Secretary of the National 
League for Woman's Service for Rhode Island, on 
April 24, 1917, from Colonel George H. Webb, Direc- 
tory of the Military Census which had been ordered 
by the Governor. In the course of this letter Col. 
Webb says : 

The patriotic cooperation of the women of Rhode Island 
is asked at this time, and we believe that it will be as freely 
given as it will be frankly sought. 

We need 2,500 enumerators in the various cities and 
towns of the state, one for approximately each 100 males 

382 



STATE ORGANIZATIONS 

16 years of age and over, to make a house-to-house canvass 
that the work may be promptly and efficiently done. 

If the women of Rhode Island are willing to undertake 
the enrollment of this force of volunteer enumerators the 
Governor of the state and the Director of the Census would 
appreciate it more than words can express. 

It would be a real help, as well as a big demonstration of 
patriotic willingness on the part of the women of Rhode 
Island to ser^^e their country and their state at a time when 
they are needed, if they would undertake this important 
task. We would establish headquarters for you here at the 
State house and furnish you with such clerical assistance 
as you might need to accomplish the desired end. 



CHAPTER XXVII 
SOUTH CAROLINA AND OTHER STATES 

"What the South Carolina women have done — State 
thoroughly organized — Work in South Dakota difficult 
— Women persist and work valiantly without funds — 
Tennessee falls in line with all varieties of war work — 
Utah women specialize on kitchen gardens — Texas 
women thoroughly organized under National League 
for Woman's Service — War work in Vermont. 

South Carolina. The women of South Carolina 
have demonstrated from the beginning a fine and a 
patriotic spirit in their defense vrork and are led by 
an indefatigable and enthusiastic state president. 
The Woman's Committee of the State Council of De- 
fense is composed of the following : 

Mrs. F. Louise Mayes, Greenville, chairman; Mrs. 
Richard I. Manning, Columbia, 1st vice chairman; 
Mrs. J. L. Coker, Hartsville, 2nd vice chairman ; Mrs. 
E. C. von Tresckow, Camden, secretary; Mrs. R. E. 
Stackhouse, Spartanburg, treasurer; Mrs. W. C. 
Cathcart, Columbia, publicity committee; Executive 
Committee: Mrs. F. Louise Mayes, Mrs. Richard I. 
Manning, Mrs. J. L. Coker, Mrs. E. C. von Tresckow, 
Mrs. R. E. Stackhouse, Mrs. W. C. Cathcart, Miss Jane 
B. Evans, Mrs. Ben Hagood, Mrs. J. W. Allen, Mrs. 
Mary C. McCanna, Mrs. Joseph Sprout, Mrs. Harriet 
Caldwell, Mrs. Robert Mixon, Mrs. J. D. Chapman, 

384 



STATE ORGANIZATIONS 

Mrs. Walker Duvall, Mrs. J. L. McWhirter, Mrs. Har- 
riet P. Lynch, Mrs. Ernest Pringle, Miss Minnie M. 
Gee, Mrs. Mary Slattery, Mrs. Andrew Bramlett, 
Mrs. M. 0. J. Kreps, Mrs. Thomas Silcox, Mrs. W. T. 
C. Bates, Miss Katie Lee. 

Mrs. Mayes, having been appointed temporary 
chairman, organized the state by calling together 
representatives of all state organizations of women at 
Rock Hill, July 12, 1917. Since then meetings have 
been held at Columbia and these have been character- 
ized by a spirit of enthusiasm and patriotism. The 
avowed purpose of the Woman ^s Committee of South 
Carolina is to *' restrict overlapping of activities and 
to eliminate waste of energy.'' The executive board 
is composed of all state presidents of women's or- 
ganizations and a chairman for each county was ap- 
pointed. The state has ten divisions of work cor- 
responding to those of the National Woman's 
Committee and recommended by that body. 

The first work undertaken by the women of South 
Carolina as an organized defense body was the regis- 
tration of the woman power of the state and the food 
conservation campaign. All town councils were 
asked to cooperate with community markets by allow- 
ing them to sell country produce without license. 
Twenty thousand ''Hoover Cards" were signed in 
the first drive and 35,000 women were registered. 
Forty-four counties have working organizations and 
have submitted reports. The sale of Liberty Bonds 
has been pushed and the women have cooperated with 
the commercial bodies in the effort to eliminate waste 
of all kinds. 

South Dakota. The women of South Dakota who 

385 



AMERICAN WOMEN AND THE WORLD WAR 

took the initiative in war work are deserving of the 
highest commendation. For several reasons the work 
in South Dakota was difficult, the main reason being 
that neither the Woman's Committee nor the State 
Council had any funds for the prosecution of war 
work. However, the women worked valiantly to the 
limit of their power, and within a short time after 
the Woman's Committee was appointed, several 
county organizations were completed and plans for 
financing the work were under way. South Dakota 
women concentrated their attention on food conserva- 
tion and later took up the registration of women. 
They were also active in the Liberty Loan campaign. 
The work in South Dakota is being done by the Food 
Conservation Committee working under the direc- 
tion of the State Council of Defense. This Commit- 
tee consist-s of: Miss Helen F. Peabody, Mr. H. A. 
Oldham, Miss Mabel Ward, Mr. A. W. Davidson and 
Mr. Charles H. Lugg. 

Tennessee. Known in history as ''The Volunteer 
State," Tennessee has more than lived up to her 
name, as far as the women are concerned, in the 
world war of 1917. As an evidence that the gospel 
of patriotism has been preached from ' ' Carter county 
on the east to Shelby county on the west," a letter 
came to Washington from a Tennessee mountain 
woman who solemnly declared that she believed that 
everything in her state had been ^'canned, dried or 
et/' 

Before the appointment of the Woman's Commit- 
tee a great deal of w^ar work had been begun under 
existing organizations — the Federated Clubs, the 
National League for Woman's Service, the Red Cross, 

386 



STATE ORGANIZATIONS 

etc. This was continued and enlarged and the Wom- 
an's Committee under the able chairmanship of Mrs. 
George W. Denny, of KnoxviUe, president of the Fed- 
erated Clubs of the state and an able and gifted 
woman, has been able to accomplish much in food 
conservation, the sale of Liberty Bonds and in every 
other form of war work in which they have been asked 
to engage. Tennessee is particularly fortunate also 
in having as its state vice chairman at large of the 
Woman's Committee Mrs. Leslie Warner, of Nash- 
ville, a woman of broad culture and experience, of 
recognized leadership and rare personal charm. 

Perhaps Tennessee has excelled most strikingly in 
her work for food conservation. Every community 
had its canning centers where women of the neighbor- 
hood brought their garden stuff to be conserved. 
One woman who had a garden forty by fifty feet 
established her canner in the midst of her flowers and 
vegetables and a community canning was held in that 
delightful spot every Thursday morning during the 
entire season. 

A most effective method initiated by Knoxville in 
the Hoover pledge campaign, and followed by many 
cities in Tennessee, was the banding of girls over 
sixteen — a captain in each ward with nine girls help- 
ing her, who solicited from house to house in a ward 
canvass. In other communities the cards were dis- 
tributed through the churches — so many women in 
each church seeing that the cards were signed at the 
close of the service. 

Training classes along all lines were established at 
Chattanooga, Memphis, and other cities. The Com- 
fort Association of Knoxville raised $2,500 from a 

387 



AMERICAN WOMEN AND THE WORLD WAR 

wonderful sacrifice sale, the money to be devoted to 
supplying comforts for the enlisted men of East Ten- 
nessee. The Women's Committee of Nashville pre- 
pared 3,200 comfort kits for the middle Tennessee 
soldiers. The Nashville women have provided a rest 
room and library at the camp for the soldiers. They 
have a victrola, all sorts of writing material, news- 
papers and all the current magazines. Memphis has 
perhaps done more in the Red Cross line, as it is the 
largest city in Tennessee and has strong financial 
backing. ''There isn't a city or community in the 
state in which the women are not doing war relief 
work, ' ' says Mrs. Denny. ' ' The women of the Volun- 
teer State are realizing the importance of a systematic 
organization, and are bending every effort in this di- 
rection. ' ' 

At the Tennessee State Fair Mrs. Alex. Caldwell, 
chairman for Food Conservation for the Woman's 
Committee, and former president of the Tennessee 
Federation of Women's Clubs, displayed a ''por- 
trait" of Mr. Hoover wrought entirely of fruits and 
vegetables. This was cleverly conceived and executed 
and, though the likeness could not be said to be a 
speaking one, the "portrait" created much amuse- 
ment and also called attention in a very striking way 
to the food pledge campaign which was then on. 

The headquarters have been provided by the state 
chairman in the Board of Commerce Building, Knox- 
ville, and stenographic help furnished by the State 
Council of Defense. 

The officers are : chairman, Mrs. George W. Denny, 
Knoxville; vice chairman at large, Mrs. Leslie War- 
ner, Nashville; vice chairman, E. Tennessee, Mrs. D. 

388 



STATE ORGANIZATIONS 

P. Montague, Chattanooga; vice chairman, W. Ten- 
nessee, Mrs. Thomas Polk, Jackson; vice chairman, 
Middle Tennessee, Miss Louise Lindsay, Nashville; 
secretary, Mrs. John Welch, Sparta; treasurer. Miss 
Margaret Hamilton Erwin, Chattanooga; secretary to 
state chairman, Mrs. T. P. Miller, Knoxville. Chair- 
man of other Committees: Social Service: Mrs. Leo 
Schwartz, Nashville; Red Cross: Mrs. James Mc- 
Cormick, Memphis; Public Health: Mrs. Claud D. 
Sullivan, Nashville; Medical Service: Dr. Elese Rut- 
ledge, Memphis; Publicity, Mrs. John M. Kenney, 
Nashville; Training Classes for "Women: Miss Mar- 
garet Wilson, Knoxville; Vigilance: Mrs. E. E. Wil- 
lingham, Memphis. Heads of Departments: Food 
Production and Home Economics: Mrs. Alex. Cald- 
well, Nashville; Women in Industry: Mrs. Isaac 
Reese, Memphis; Child Welfare: Mrs. Eugene 
Crutcher, Nashville; Education: Mrs. L. D. Tyson, 
Knoxville; Home and Foreign Relief: Miss Delia 
Dortch, Nashville; Spiritual Forces: Mrs. James B. 
Ezell, Newsom. 

Tennessee was one of the first of the states to per- 
fect a live, active organization under the National 
League for National Service. The state chairman, 
Mrs. Jesse Overton, was able to make a splendid 
report of the work of the first six months, and day by 
day the work is broadening in all directions. 

Texas. The women of the great state of Texais 
have gone about their defense work with a thorough- 
ness and enthusiasm that is worthy of the spirit of 
the Lone Star State, and conspicuous success has at- 
tended every campaign undertaken by the women 
since war was declared. The National League for 

389 



AMERICAN WOMEN AND THE WORLD WAR 

Woman's Service was well organized and was already 
doing a large and a very valuable work when this 
country became involved in the world war. This 
work has continued and the women of Texas have a 
record of achievement to their credit that they may 
well be proud of. The slogan, ''For God, for coun- 
try, for home'' was repeated three times with much 
fervor by the women of Houston at their initial meet- 
ing for defense work, and the spirit engendered at this 
meeting meant much for the future success of the 
plans about to be formulated. At this as well as at 
all meetings of the Texas women in the first days of 
the war, the clubs of the state were fully represented. 
Texas was one of the first states to put through 
quickly and successfully a registration of its women, 
and the way the women of the cities of the state con- 
ducted their campaigns for registration and for food 
conservation is well worthy of notice. 

The Woman 's Committee of the Council of National 
Defense for Texas was organized soon after the call 
came from Washington, with the following officers: 
president, Mrs. Fred Fleming, Dallas; 1st vice presi- 
dent, Mrs. Lee Gilbert Joseph, San Antonio; 2nd 
vice president, Mrs. G. W. Connery, Fort Worth; 
secretary, Mrs. A. B. Griffith, Dallas; treasurer, Miss 
Adena DeZavalla, San Antonio. Organization has 
been extended to all counties, cities and towns. By 
July 15, 1917, 215 counties were organized out of 247, 
with seven members of the committee in each, accord- 
ing to a report received at the headquarters of the 
Woman's Committee in Washington. 

Utah. The spirit of conservation had already 
reached Utah before war was declared. The women 

390 



STATE ORGANIZATIONS 

throughout the state had, for two years, been working 
on the kitchen garden idea. They were organized in 
canning centers and were prepared in every way to 
meet the demand made upon the people by Herbert C. 
Hoover. Utah's biggest ''drive'* was in the interest 
of food conservation, which was handled with remark- 
able efficiency by the Committee on Food Supply and 
Conservation, which was affiliated with the Extension 
Division of the Utah Agricultural College. This Com- 
mittee is composed of Janette A. Hyde, chairman ; Ger- 
trude McCheyne, Mrs. A. J. Gorham, Rena B. Maycock. 

Seven canning centers were immediately opened, 
as well as a central citizen's municipal market. In 
connection with this, a community kitchen, where 
the principle of conserving and preserving the sur- 
plus food left over from the market, was conducted. 
The women who came to market had the privilege of 
witnessing demonstrations conducted under expert 
hands. The principle of canning fruits and vege- 
tables, as well as the methods of drying and salting 
were taught each day. The idea was carried still 
further into the community centers where capable 
demonstrators worked along the same lines which 
were given at the market. 

Janette A. Hyde, Utah's enterprising chairman 
says : * ' The work accomplished throughout the state 
has been far-reaching in its scope. The people have 
accepted very readily the principle of conservation 
and preservation, feeling that they were going back 
to the old pioneer days of raising and saving every- 
thing which was possible for human energy to con- 
serve. We were prepared and at work before the 
word came for us to begin. 

391 



AMERICAN WOMEN AND THE WORLD WAR 

** Thousands of war gardens were planted at the 
beginning of the season. Women formed into groups, 
having their socials known as 'seed day' where seeds 
were exchanged, 'potato socials' where each one be- 
longing to the group brought small bags of potatoes 
which were cut up and prepared for seed. Those 
who were not fortunate enough to have potatoes to 
give for this purpose, served refreshments to those 
who furnished and prepared the seed. On every 
hand, we heard of busy house-wives making ready 
for assisting with the home garden and extra planting 
on spaces of spare ground. When the time came for 
harvesting the crops, women formed into groups and 
gleaned as did Ruth of old. Many thousands of 
pounds of wheat were gathered which otherwise 
would have wasted in the field. Miles of curbing 
throughout the crowded districts were used as an ex- 
tension to the home garden. Boys' and girls* groups 
were formed throughout the state, supervised by the 
Agricultural College, who produced many extra bush- 
els of green garden vegetables. Not only have the 
women of the state quadrupled their output of jellies, 
fruit, etc., for individual use, but they have given very 
generously of their time toward the canning and pre- 
serving of fruits and vegetables for charitable institu- 
tions as well as putting up thousands of jars of jellies 
to be turned over to the Red Cross for the use of our 
boys in the trenches. 

"To the Woman's Committee, affiliated with the 
State Council of Defense, came the tremendous task 
of registering all of the families throughout the state, 
and 75,000 cards were printed and distributed by the 
Committee. Many of our women had to travel from 

392 



STATE ORGANIZATIONS 

10 to 25 miles to distribute the cards in the districts 
to which they had been assigned. Two hundred and 
seventy-five women volunteered their services. Forty- 
nine thousand three hundred and seventy-three cards 
were signed and returned. A tabulation of the same 
was kept in the state for future use. Two hundred 
and fifty individuals sent cards and dimes to Wash- 
ington for the Hoover button and insignia. 

**We feel that the spirit of conservation through 
the distribution of the Hoover cards has done much 
to enthuse our women to prompt and concerted action. 
We also sent out 1,000 of the Hoover kitchen cards to 
prominent societies and organizations. 

*'In eight counties, paid demonstrators were at 
work giving instructions and helping the women with 
the latest methods of preparing fruits and vegetables. 
We had 1,500 volunteer women throughout the state 
assisting in every way possible, and to our well organ- 
ized and equipped Relief Society we feel that the 
greatest amount of credit is due for our splendid re- 
port. 

''It is impossible to estimate the wonderful amount 
of good that has been done through the Conserva- 
tion Movement. 

''The amount of materials put up under the direc- 
tion of demonstrations in counties in Salt Lake City 
is as follows; 9,603 quarts of jelly, jam, and 
canned vegetables; besides 30,000 ears of corn dried. 
The number of women reached directly by county 
demonstrators was 30,005. Number of bulletins and 
college circulars distributed, 12,534. Number of 
places in which demonstrations and short courses were 
given, 67. Number of women in attendance at dem- 

393 



AMERICAN WOMEN AND THE WORLD WAR 

onstrations, 9,855. Individual contact and personal 
conversations over telephone, 6,288. Number of agri- 
cultural women conducting state-wide work, six." 

If each state had kept as accurate a record of its 
war work as Utah has done the Government would 
have a document of inestimable value upon which to 
base many of the future operations of its depart- 
ments in the work of which women are concerned. 

The officers of the Utah Woman 's Committee are : 
chairman, Mrs. W. N. Williams, Salt Lake; 1st vice 
chairman, Mrs. Edward Bischel, Ogden; 2nd vice 
chairman, Mrs. J. W. Knight, Provo ; 3rd vice chair- 
man, Mrs. R. E. L. Collier, Salt Lake; Secretary, Miss 
Elsa Bamberger, Salt Lake. 

Vermont, In every line of patriotic work that has 
been suggested from Washington the women of Ver- 
mont have done their full share. In no field, how- 
ever, have they accomplished more than in the con- 
servation of food. Vermont was one of the first states 
to operate the rule ''No white bread on Wednesdays 
and Thursdays." The Red Cross is organized 
throughout the state and Vermont women have done 
effective work in the interest of the war library. The 
work of the Woman's Committee was initiated with a 
meeting in the executive chamber by invitation of the 
Governor of Vermont. The women also met with the 
Public Safety Committee and an excellent program, 
with the best speakers obtainable, served to inspire 
the people with zeal for war work. Great success 
attended the efforts in the interest of the food-pledge 
campaign, and Vermont made a fine record in the 
sale of Liberty bonds. The women of the state have 
seen to it that all state papers are supplied with live 

394 



STATE ORGANIZATIONS 

news on what women are doing, and the publication 
of these items in many papers has gone far toward 
stirring the people to their duty in the Nation's 
crisis. 

At the suggestion of the Woman's Committee, 
Professor Bertha M. Terrill, Director of the Depart- 
ment of Home Economics of the University of Ver- 
mont, was appointed home economics director for the 
United States Food Administration of Vermont. 
Officers for the Woman 's Committee are : chairman, 
Mrs. J. E. Weeks, Middlebury; recording secretary, 
Mrs. Gilbert Davis, Windsor; corresponding secre- 
tary, Mrs. Arthur Isham, Burlington ; treasurer, Mrs. 
Oliver Ashton, Rutland. 

Of the spirit of the women of Vermont one of the 
state leaders has said : *'I can not tell when or where 
the distinctively war service started — it seemed to 
spontaneously spring into existence everywhere as 
soon as we were actually in the struggle, but it is in 
full swing all over the state, under direction of one 
or another of our women's organizations. In many 
towns the Red Cross work is headed by the D. A. R. 
Chapter, as in Brattleboro, and the rooms are open 
for work every day and evening. The Federated 
Clubs indorse and join in every form of relief work, 
and the Vermont Society of Colonial Dames has con- 
tributed $375 to the Y. M. C. A. war relief work. It 
is not going too far to say that every member of all 
the organizations mentioned is cooperating with all 
other agencies for special war service. Vermont is 
alert, patriotic, industrious and wide-awake to her 
opportunities for usefulness." 



CHAPTER XXVIII 
VIRGINIA, WISCONSIN, WASHINGTON, ETC. 

Personnel of Virginia Committee — National League for 
Woman's Service and Woman's Committee work effec- 
tively in Washington — D. A. R. and Suffrage Associa- 
tion in Wisconsin cooperate in Americanization — Voca- 
tional emergency education — Wyoming Woman's Com- 
mittee encourages garden planting — Acreage increased 
150 per cent. — Every county organized — Many things 
done in West Virginia — Every woman's organization 
cooperating. 

Virginia. Virginia v^^omen have been industriously 
at work since the war began in every field in which 
the assistance of women has been called for, and it 
would be difficult to say where they have excelled 
most. Through its many organizations the state was 
already doing effective relief work through the Red 
Cross and other recognized agencies when this country 
entered the war. Upon the call from Washington for 
organization under the Woman's Committee of the 
Council of National Defense it was only necessary to 
intensify the work already begun and to coordinate 
the efforts then being made. At this writing no of- 
ficial report of the work in Virginia was available, but 
the enthusiastic patriotism of the women of that state 
is too well known to be further emphasized here. 

The Woman's Committee of the Council of Na- 

396 



STATE ORGANIZATIONS 

tional Defense, Virginia Division, is affiliated with the 
State Defense Council. The officers are: honorary 
chairman, Mrs. Claude Swanson, Washington; chair- 
man, Mrs. B. B. Munford, Richmond; 1st vice chair- 
man, Mrs. W. W. Sale, Richmond ; 2nd vice chairman, 
Mrs. John Ilagan, Danville; 3rd vice chairman, Mrs. 
"Wm. Ruffin Cox, Richmond ; 4th vice chairman, Miss 
Alethea Serpell, Norfolk; 5th vice chairman, Mrs. 
Lucian Cocke, Roanoke ; secretary and treasurer, Mrs. 
E. R. Williams, Richmond. The departments and 
their chairmen are: Organization: Mrs. E. C. Minor, 
Richmond; Registration: Mrs. John Lewis, Lynch- 
burg; Food Conservation and Home Economics: Miss 

Ella Agnew, Blacksburg; Food Production: 

Women in Industry: Miss Lucy Mason, Richmond 
Child Welfare: Mrs. W. A. Burrows, Richmond 
Maintenance of Existing Social Agencies: Mrs. S. H. 
Cabaniss, Richmond; Education, (a) Literature and 
Speakers: Mrs. St. G. Bryan, Richmond; (b) Infor- 
mation, or Organization of Training Classes for 
Women: Miss Virginia McKenney, Petersburg, and 
Mrs. M. S. Moffet, Radford ; Liberty Loans : Mrs. Eg- 
bert Leigh, Jr., Richmond ; Home and Foreign Relief : 
Miss Gabriella Page, Richmond; Safeguarding of 
Moral and Spiritual Forces: Miss Katherine Hawes, 

Richmond; Finance: ; Publicity: Mrs. Sally 

N. Robins, Richmond; Public Health: Miss Agnes 
Randolph, Richmond. 

Washington. In the state of Washington the first 
organization to systematically plan war emergency 
work was the National League for Woman's Service 
and many of the things accomplished by the Wash- 
ington women have been directed by that organiza- 

397 



AMERICAN WOMEN AND THE WORLD WAR 

tion. However, Mrs. Winfield R. Smith, chairman of 
the National League for Woman's Service, was ap- 
pointed chairman of the Woman's Committee of the 
Council of National Defense for her state when that 
Committee was organized some time later, and from 
the beginning there has been complete cooperation. 
Much of the work that had been begun by the Na- 
tional League for Woman's Service was carried on to 
successful completion without interruption. The 
Woman's Committee has directed from time to time 
certain features of the work and has detailed certain 
assignments to the various organizations affiliating 
with the Woman's Committee. 

Of the work in her state Mrs. Smith says: ''The 
League has established classes in telegraphy, sales- 
manship, running elevators, general office work and 
classes in French; motor driving, cooking and can- 
ning, as well as preparing for Civil Service exami- 
nations. They have corps of women learning to 
use rifles, who will be ready for home defense or 
patrol work, if necessary. They have had classes 
in gardening and women have assisted largely in 
this state in gathering and packing fruit and vegeta- 
bles. 

''In Social and Welfare work they are establishing 
home clubs for soldiers and sailors, where entertain- 
ment is offered under wholesome and attractive sur- 
roundings, and being a city located on the ocean we 
have both soldiers and sailors to care for, and we are 
cooperating with the Y. M. C. A., in their reading 
rooms and other activities. 

"In Washington we have Camp Lewis at American 
Lake where 40,000 men are stationed, and we are 

398 



STATE ORGANIZATIONS 

assisting in many ways to help meet the problems 
such a large cantonment presents. 

"The Hostess House of the Y. W. C. A., is about 
finished there and will soon be thrown open for the 
use of the men and their relatives. 

''The Woman's Committee has in particular the 
work of the registration of the women of the state, 
and, meanwhile, we assisted in the sale of Liberty 
Loan Bonds with Mrs. Overton G. Ellis of Olympia 
as state chairman of the Liberty Loan Committee; 
and with the Food Pledge to be taken up in Novem- 
ber with Miss Agnes Craig, of Pullman, State Chair- 
man of the Food Administration in charge ; the Social 
Welfare work in all our camps will be under the two 
organizations working together. 

''In this state the women assisted materially in the 
saving of the fruit crops. In one of our smaller cities 
the women have put up 10,000 jars of fruit and vege- 
tables for hospital use. Hundreds of quarts have been 
sealed in tin cans ready for transportation to France. 
The Motor Division went throughout the county 
and gathered fruit and vegetables, which might other- 
wise have been wasted, for this purpose. That same 
town has made, approaching 25,000 garments for the 
Red Cross aside from all their surgical dressing work 
and work in other departments. Of course, our 
larger centers have done the greatest amount of social 
and welfare work, in caring for men in the begin- 
ning of volunteer enlistment, who even required food 
and clothing, and in helping civilian relief to provide 
for dependents, etc. 

"Our women are well organized and are doing 
splendid service work continually and have many 

399 



AMERICAN WOMEN AND THE WORLD WAR 

plans for the future, particularly in regard to our 
training camps; the special cantonment at Camp 
Lewis and the navy work at Bremerton. One plan 
carried out was to have a Christmas tree in our hos- 
pital at Camp Lewis for the men ill at that time, and 
we undertook to provide a Christmas package for 
every man in every camp and fort who would not be 
otherwise remembered on that day. ' ^ 

The officers of the Washington Woman's Com- 
mittee are: honorary chairmen, Mrs. Ernest Lister, 
Olympia; Mrs. Henry Suzallo, Seattle; Mrs. Eliza 
Feery Leary, Seattle; chairman, Mrs. Winfield R. 
Smith, Seattle ; acting chairmen, Mrs. W. S. Griswold, 
Seattle; Mrs. J. H. Mendenhall, Seattle; Mrs. L. B. 
Steadman, Seattle; Mrs. Helen N. Stevens, Seattle; 
vice chairmen, Mrs. N. S. McCready, Snohomish; 
Mrs. J. C. Todd, Takoma ; Mrs. 0. G. Ellis, Olympia, 
Mrs. W. P. Harper, Seattle; Mrs. Mary G. Ewing, 
Pullman; Miss Sue Lombard, North Yakima; execu- 
tive secretary, Mrs. Milo J. Loveless, Seattle; cor- 
responding secretary, Mrs. R. A. Ballinger, Seattle; 
treasurer, Mrs. A. 0. Downey, Seattle; parliamenta- 
rian, Mrs. George N. McLaughlin, Seattle; Publicity, 
Mrs. W. S. Griswold. 

Wisconsin. The women of Wisconsin have worked 
in all branches of war relief work, but the Woman's 
Committee of the Wisconsin State Council of Defense 
has accomplished much in two important ways. In 
distributing the various branches of patriotic service 
the Woman's Committee delegated the work of the 
Americanization of aliens to the Daughters of the 
American Revolution and the Wisconsin Woman's 
Suffrage Association. The outline of work prepared 

400 



STATE ORGANIZATIONS 

by the Americanization Chairman of the suffrage as- 
sociation was heartily approved by Mrs. John P. 
Hume, state regent of the D. A. R., and was adopted 
without change and with commendation by the Wom- 
an's Committee of the State Council of Defense. A 
letter was sent out to the women of the state to this 
effect : 

"Your organization is urged to give cordial support to 
the working out of this plan in your city, providing that 
city includes un- Americanized aliens. All people interested, 
or societies interested, are invited to cooperate in this un- 
dertaking. You cannot do more valuable patriotic service 
than to help make good American citizens of those who are 
among us and not of us." 

The plan adopted for Americanization classes is in- 
teresting. In the Milwaukee Social Centers from 
7:30 to 9 p. M., classes in English, American history 
and government are held from September to March, 
three nights a week. Similar work is done in Mad- 
ison and Oshkosh. The work was carried on vigor- 
ously throughout the state to hasten the process of 
assimilation. Instructions for organizing classes were 
as follows: *' Procure the names of men who have 
declared their intention of becoming citizens from the 
United States Naturalization Bureau in your county 
court house. Write these men of your classes. Also 
advertise classes as follows: 1. Dodgers in English 
and foreign languages suitable to your community to 
be taken home by school children ; 2. Posters in Eng- 
lish and foreign language placed in public buildings 
and in and near factories; 3. Newspapers — English 
and foreign. Teachers should, if possible, know the 

401 



AMERICAN WOMEN AND THE WORLD WAR 

language of the foreign groups they are teaching. 
Special text books should be used; those used in the 
ordinary grammar school are not suitable for adults 
of foreign birth and should be avoided. 

''Classes can be supplemented by individuals visit- 
ing an alien family, interesting themselves in its prob- 
lems and teaching English and American ideals. Ar- 
range patriotic meetings for foreigners in the public 
schools. Have speeches in English and in the lan- 
guage of the group attending. If possible, have mov- 
ing pictures or stereopticon slides of scenes of the 
home country to attract your crowd." 

The women of Wisconsin accomplished a great deal 
through the Consumers League, of which Mrs. Kittle 
is chairman. Of the vocational emergency education, 
Mrs. H. M. Youmans said: 

''The aim of vocational emergency education is to 
provide classes for women and girls who are TVithout 
training and who are doing unaccustomed work. 
Many girls for instance are taking the places of men 
in clerical work for which they have no equipment. 
We shall provide evening classes for these girls in 
bookkeeping, stenography, and other branches. We 
have a system of vocational instruction in Wisconsin 
under which a group of fifteen may demand that a 
teacher in any desired branch be provided at public 
expense. It will probably be better at first to handle 
our vocational emergency education through this 
agency ; possibly we may appeal to the University Ex- 
tension Department. In any event we plan to have 
this work done through regular educational channels. 
It will probably begin with such classes as were in- 
dicated and we hope to make it cover any other classes 

402 



STATE ORGANIZATIONS 

for which a considerable number of girls seem to have 
need." 

The Red Cross Committee of the State Council of 
Defense has been one of the most active organizations 
in the state. Mrs. H. H. Morgan, Madison, is chair- 
man, and associated with her are, Dr. J. S. Evans, 
Madison, and Adjutant General Holway, Madison. 
Advisory members are Mrs. Joseph W. Bobbins, Mad- 
ison, and Mr. S. M. McFedries, Milwaukee, State 
Director of Red Cross Chapters. As a result of the 
activities of this Committee twenty-one county chap- 
ters of the Red Cross Society had been organized by 
September 1, 1917, and branches and auxiliary had 
been established in more than 200 towns. The Com- 
mittee secured the cooperation of the Red Cross Chap- 
ters throughout the state with the Adjutant General 
in the administration of the State Fund for the Re- 
lief of Families of Soldiers and Sailors. More than 
100 people took the course in civilian relief work 
given at the University of Wisconsin, which was ar- 
ranged by the Committee and paid for by the State 
Council of Defense. Red Cross sewing and knitting 
is being done by inmates of state and county insti- 
tutions through the consent of the State Board of 
Control, and materials are furnished by the Red 
Cross Committee. The work is also being introduced 
in the home economics departments of public schools. 

A great deal of valuable work was done by the 
sub-committees of the Woman's Committee. Home 
and foreign relief has been looked after by Mrs. B. 
L. Maloney. The Women in Industry Committee, of 
which Mrs. William Kittle is chairman, cooperates 
with the Wisconsin Industrial Commission. This 

403 



AMERICAN WOMEN AND THE WORLD WAR 

Committee assisted in securing women workers in 
eight pea canneries. The chairman of Registration is 
Mrs. John W. Mariner, and the conservation work is 
directed by Miss Abby L. Marlatt. Out of seventy- 
one counties in the state forty-seven reported canning 
clubs in canning centers by the fall of 1917. This 
committee was instrumental in having the State Coun- 
cil of Defense pay for the publication of 50,000 bulle- 
tins on drying, which were widely distributed. In- 
tensive training for canning demonstrators was given 
for one week during the summer session at the Univer- 
sity of Wisconsin and 392 women took the courses. 
Chairmen of other committees are as follows : Health 
and Recreation: Mrs. W. A. Lawson; Education and 
Americanization: Mrs. H. M. Youmans and Mrs. 
John P. Hume; Home Work for Town and Country, 
Mrs. C. E. Estabrook; Red Cross: Mrs. Joseph W. 
Hobbins ; Liberty Loan : Mrs. John W. Mariner. 

In sixty-five counties a woman member has been 
appointed on the County Council of Defense. She is 
chairman of the County Woman's Committee, which 
is formed in the same way as the State Woman's 
Committee — of representatives from all the women's 
organizations. Each town has a local committee un- 
der the supervision of the county committee. 

The chairman of the Woman's Committee of Wis- 
consin, Mrs. H. H. Morgan, Madison, was appointed 
by Governor E. L. Philipp, member of the State Coun- 
cil of Defense. The Committee consists of : Mrs. H. 
H. Morgan, chairman; Mrs. E. L. Maloney, Woman's 
Relief Corps; Mrs. John P. Hume, Daughters of the 
American Revolution; Mrs. Wm. Kittle, Wisconsin 
Consumers League; Mrs. H. M. Youmans, Wisconsin 

404 



STATE ORGANIZATIONS 

Woman's Suffrage Association; Mrs. John W. Mari- 
ner, National League for Woman's Service; Miss 
Abby L. Marlatt, Home Economics Department, Uni- 
versity of Wisconsin; Mrs. L. D. Harvey, Wisconsin 
Federation of Women's Clubs; Mrs. W. A. Lawson, 
Women's Christian Temperance Union; Mrs. Joseph 
A. Schumacher, State Conference of Catholic Wom- 
en's Clubs; Mrs. George H. Noyes, Association of 
Collegiate Alumnae; Mrs. Mary F. Grimshaw, Order 
of Eastern Star; Mrs. C. E. Estabrook, Wisconsin 
Association Opposed to Woman Suffrage; Mrs. Car- 
roll M. Towne, United States Daughters of 1812 ; Mrs. 
Imogen Hatch, Ladies of the G. A. K. ; Mrs. J. A. Ayl- 
ward, at large; Mrs. Joseph W. Hobbins, at large; 
Mrs. Blanche Burrowbridge, Pythian Sisters. 

West Virginia. Mrs. J. G. Cochran of Parkers- 
burg, who is chairman for the West Virginia Division 
of the Woman's Committee of the Council of Na- 
tional Defense, is president of the State Federation of 
Women's Clubs, president of a music club, instructor 
of parliamentary law, director of a big choir and, at 
the time the Woman's Committee was being organized, 
she was supervising the building and furnishing of a 
new clubhouse. Speaking of the splendid work of 
the West Virginia women, Mrs. Cochran said : 

** Nearly every woman's organization in the state 
has come in and all are working with our State Di- 
vision. Community kitchens have been opened in 
the larger cities of our state, and in the smaller towns 
the school houses have been used to give demonstra- 
tions in canning and preserving fruits and vegetables. 

''West Virginia pledged 50,000 cans of tomatoes to 
the government. Earlier in the year nearly every 

405 



AMERICAN WOMEN AND THE WORLD WAR 

family responded to the request to have kitchen gar- 
dens. All vacant lots were planted in vegetables. We 
oversubscribed our Liberty Bonds, Red Cross and Y. 
M. C. A. pledges. Now we are collecting books for 
the soldiers. We had two food campaigns. Classes 
in auto repairing were started and girls are in training 
for ambulance driving. Everybody is doing Red 
Cross Work. In August, 1917, our State Council of 
Defense put on a war pageant in five of the largest 
cities of our state. But the work was largely done by 
the women. This pageant was to arouse the spirit of 
patriotism and it did the work. ' ' 

The officers are: chairman, Mrs. Joseph G. Coch- 
ran, Parkersburg; 1st vice chairman. Dr. Harriet 
Jones, Wheeling; 2nd vice chairman, Mrs. R. L. 
Hutchinson, Huntington; treasurer, Mrs. John L. 
Ruhl, Clarksburg; department chairmen: Registra- 
tion: Miss Lucy Prichard, Huntington; Food Produc- 
tion: Miss Hepworth, Morgantown; Child Welfare: 
Miss Nola McKinney, Fairmont; Maintenance of Ex- 
isting Social Agencies : Mrs. J. F. Waddell, Hunting- 
ton; Red Cross and Allied Relief: Mrs. Harry WThit- 
aker. Wheeling; Education: Mrs. J. S. Cunningham, 
Charleston ; Home and Foreign Relief : Mrs. Ellis Yost, 
Morgantown, or Driscoll Hotel, W^ashington, D. C. ; 
Health and Recreation : Mrs. Walter Snow, Clarksburg. 

Wyoming. The State Council for Defense for 
Wyoming was organized soon after the National Ad- 
visory Committee. It was in time to encourage the 
planting of gardens, with the result that the acreage 
was increased at least 150 per cent. Later, with 
the cooperation of the extension department of the 
State University, demonstrations in canning and 

406 



STATE ORGANIZATIONS 

drying, and preserving and storing of vegetables and 
fruits, were held in practically every community 
in the state. It is much easier to reach a large pro- 
portion of the women in a sparsely settled state such 
as Wyoming than it is in a state where there are 
cities with congested centers. The demonstrations 
were held first in the counties of lower altitude, and 
were then concluded in counties such as Laramie, 
where the altitude is 6,000 feet and more. 

The registration of women took place on the 17th 
of July, 1917. The state had been organized previ- 
ously with a chairman in each county and in each 
voting precinct. A total of 29,000 cards was sent 
out; about 12,000 were returned. There were two 
registration cards prepared, one Mr. Hoover's pledge 
card and the other the war service registration blank. 

Wyoming women rendered valiant service with the 
Liberty Loan and the Red Cross Drive, although the 
state was not fully organized at that time. Mrs. 
Taliaferro, Rock Springs, was appointed chairman 
for Liberty Loan. 

While these are the things that have been done in a 
state-wide way, many other things have been done by 
the local or county committees. The women of the 
state generally are very much interested, and are ac- 
tive in Red Cross Work. 

The officers are: Mrs. T. S. Taliaferro of Rock 
Springs, chairman of the Liberty Loan Committee; 
Miss Emeline Whitsomb, Laramie, Wyoming Chair- 
man of Pood Conservation and Home Economics, and 
Mrs. R. A. Morton, Cheyenne, Chairman of Women 
in Industry. These appointments were all made in 
Washington. 

407 



PART III 
WAE RELIEF ORGANIZATIONS 



CHAPTER XXIX 
THE FEDERAL COUNCIL 

The Federal Council and some of its cooperating com- 
mittees — National Allied Relief — Great bazaars of New 
York, Boston and Chicago— "AUey Festa" of 1917— 
Fund for Fatherless Children and Munition Work- 
ers — International Reconstruction League — American 
Women's Hospitals — National Surgical Dressings Com- 
mittee — American Women's War Relief — Stage Wom- 
en's War Relief — American Ambulance, Millinery 
Branch — Statement about "Godmothering." 

No CHAPTER in the annals of America's part in the 
World War, and certainly none in the beautiful 
story of her charities, is more thrilling and impres- 
sive than that devoted to the relief of the unfor- 
tunate victims of the war. It is indeed doubtful 
whether, in the entire history of the United States, so 
many persons of prominence have ever before been 
banded together with a common charitable object in 
view as are represented in organizations comprising 
the Federal Council of Allied War Charities. The 
magnitude of activities carried on by this organiza- 
tion is shown by the impressive fact that more than 
seventy-five distinct and separate agencies are har- 
moniously cooperating with the sole object of increas- 
ing efficiency and economy of operations and extend- 
ing the wisest and largest possible measure of relief 

411 



n^ 



AMERICAN WOMEN AND THE WORLD WAR 

to the war sufferers. The federation of these organi- 
zations into a central body constitutes strength which 
could not otherwise have been realized. The funds 
raised for war relief through these agencies in three 
years amounted to $20,000,000, while the value of 
supplies shipped was $10,000,000, making a total of 
$30,000,000. The membership of these societies is 
more than 2,000,000, while branches or sub-commit- 
tees of the organization number 5,000. Significant 
also is the fact that in the great allied bazaars of 1917 
eighty-eight organizations cooperated. 

The National Allied Relief Committee, New York, 
organized in July, 1915, immediately took rank in the 
forefront of war relief organizations of America, both 
in the matter of influence and effectiveness. 

It has for its object the making known to the peo- 
ple of America the needs of the sufferers in the allied 
countries and to raise money for their relief, as well 
as to coordinate the activities of various committees 
appealing for funds and to cooperate with them. 
The success of the committee is eloquently evidenced 
by the steadily increasing number of important or- 
ganizations which have affiliated themselves with it 
for cooperation. There are more than forty affiliated 
organizations. The total receipts of the National 
Allied Relief Committee to July, 1917, were more 
than $1,063,000. It is estimated that the committees 
operating with it have raised more than $10,000,000 
in cash for the prosecution of war relief in the coun- 
tries of the Entente Allies, and this is exclusive of 
very large contributions of goods and money for- 
warded through their efforts by the War Relief Clear- 
ing House. 

412 



WAR RELIEF ORGANIZATIONS 

The committee was organized by John Moffatt, 
Frederick H. Allen, T. C. Glenchoes, Norman Hap- 
good and Karl Davis Robinson. Its honorary presi- 
dent is Charles W. Eliot, President Emeritus of 
Harvard University, and Mr. Norman Hapgood is 
president. Women have had an important part in 
the work of this committee and the vice presidents in- 
clude Mrs. William Alexander, Mrs. J. Borden Har- 
riman, Mrs. Schuyler Van Rensselaer, Mrs. Fiske 
Warren and Mrs. Barret Wendell. The National 
Committee includes the names of Mrs. William H. 
Crocker, Mrs. Charles H. Ditson, Mrs. William Cor- 
coran, Eustis, Mrs. H. H. Jenkins, Mrs. James H. 
Kidder, Mrs. Whitelaw Reid, Mrs. Manson Smith, 
Mrs. Barclay H. Warburton, Mrs. Fiske Warren, Mrs. 
Barrett Wendell and Mrs. Schuyler Van Rensselaer. 

Women have had a large and a very important part 
in the success of practically all of the societies in- 
cluded in the Allied *War Relief Organization. 
Many of them were organized and are operated by 
women, and there are none in which women are not 
working as auxiliary or active members. Many or- 
ganizations of women devoting themselves to various 
lines of work, immediately upon the declaration of 
war in Europe, turned the full strength and power 
of their organization to war work, while numerous 
new associations were formed within a short time 
after war was declared. 

Notable among the special relief work in which 
women have shared may be mentioned the Allied 
Bazaars of New York, Boston and Chicago. Before 
November, 1917, the total net profit for war relief 
from these sources was $1,479,459.33. This was di- 

413 



AMERICAN WOMEN AND THE WORLD WAR 

vided as follows: New York, $484,826.27; Boston, 
$459,339,29; Chicago, $535,293.77. While this is not 
strictly a woman's organization, the women worked 
•untiringly for the success of these bazaars and to them 
much of the credit of this success is undoubtedly due. 

In November, 1917, nearly one hundred war relief 
organizations cooperated in the greatest charity bazaar 
ever held in America. This was called "Hero Land" 
and while figures are not available at this writing it 
is doubtful if any similar event in the world has ever 
been more brilliant or has brought more financial re- 
sults than this wonderful bazaar for war relief held 
in Grand Central Palace in New York City. 

The ''Alley Festa" held in 1917 in New York in 
the famous MacDougall Alley was one of the most 
unique and successful war relief entertainments that 
has been held in America. Mrs. Harry Payne Whit- 
ney was honorary treasurer and Mrs. William A. 
Delano, Mrs. Walter E. Maynard and Mrs. Ralph 
Sanger were members of the management committee. 
The entertainment committee consisted of Mrs. 
Charles B. Dillingham and Mrs. W. K. Vanderbilt, 
Jr. The Festa netted the magnificent sum of $62,- 
263.73 for the American Red Cross and the Allied 
War Charities. So well was the affair managed that 
the expenses were only ten cents on the dollar. 

The American Committee of Allied Home Fund for 
Fatherless Children and Woman Munition Workers, 
has headquarters at 360 Madison Avenue, New York 
City; the committee supports the Lady St. Helier 
House for Women Munition Workers, and the or- 
phanage established by the French Heroes Fund at 
the Chateau de Chavaniac Lafayette in France, and 

414 



WAR RELIEF ORGANIZATIONS 

has a home for women munition workers in London. 
It also cooperates with the Committee of Mercy, the 
French Heroes Fund, and the International Recon- 
struction League and the League of the Allies. Mr. 
Norman Hapgood is Chairman of the Executive Com- 
mittee, which is composed of Mr. Frederick H. Allen, 
treasurer. Queen of Belgium Fund; Mrs. William 
Astor Chanler, president. National Allied Relief Com- 
mittee; Mr. Er Lawshe, executive secretary, French 
Tuberculosis War Victims Fund; Miss Elsa Maxwell, 
honorary secretary, Le Bien-Etre die Blesse; Mrs. 
Walter E. Maynard, of French Tuberculosis War 
Victims fund; Mr. John Moffat, president Russian 
War Relief Committee; Mr. Karl Davis Robinson, 
executive secretary. Committee of Mercy; Mr. 
Thomas Randolph Turner, executive secretary. Inter- 
national Reconstruction League; Mrs. H. J. Whig- 
ham, of the French Heroes Fund, and Mr. Louis 
Wiley, of the League of the Eleven Allies. The Com- 
mittee has for its object the relief of women suf- 
ferers and of war orphans. 

The American Committee of the International Re- 
construction League, 360 Madison Ave., New York, 
has three great purposes: immediate relief work 
for the suffering war victims of Europe while the 
war lasts; American aid for Europe's stricken peo- 
ple when the war shall end, and the gigantic task 
when rehabilitation begins; the education of public 
opinion throughout the world as to the practicality 
of a world-wide arrangement to insure a lasting 
peace, with America pledged to the support of such 
an arrangement. The League plans to remain per- 
manently in existence, and to undertake relief work 

415 » 



AMERICAN WOMEN AND THE WORLD WAR 

instantly in any part of the world where war or dis- 
aster shall make assistance necessary. The League 
was founded in February, 1916, and its receipts up to 
July, 1917, amounted to nearly $185,000. 

The American Women 's Hospitals, organized by the 
War Service Committee of the Medical Woman's Na- 
tional Association, is an organization of the women 
physicians and surgeons of the United States to ren- 
der international service during the war. The plans 
of the organization have been approved by the Sur- 
geon General of the Army and by the Director Gen- 
eral of the Department of Military Relief of the 
American Red Cross. The work has the following 
divisions: Hospitals for Civilian Relief, with associ- 
ated dispensaries, these to go especially to the de- 
vastated portions of Serbia, France, Russia and Rou- 
mania; Service in Army Units in Europe; Army 
Hospitals for Acute Convalescent Cases in Home 
Zone; Substitution Service in American Hospitals 
and in Private Practice for the doctors who go to 
Europe; and a Dental Department. Rosalie Slaugh- 
ter Morton, M.D., is Chairman of the War Service 
Committee, and Sue Radcliff, M.D., is Treasurer. 
Headquarters, 637 Madison Ave., New York City. 

America has no greater war relief organization, nor 
one that has rendered a higher service, than the Na- 
tional Surgical Dressings Committee with headquar- 
ters at 299 Fifth Avenue, New York City. This 
Committee, organized in 1914 for voluntary war re- 
lief, shipped for distribution among the hospitals of 
war-stricken Europe within the first two years of its 
existence more thaji 18,000,000 surgical dressings. It 
aims to be the medium through which generous and 

416 



WAR RELIEF ORGANIZATIONS 

sympathetic Americans who are desirous of giving 
their time and money for alleviating the sufferings of 
the wounded, can make and send surgical dressings to 
the hospitals in the war zone, many of which have 
not the barest necessities for caring for the sick. The 
Committee has successfully strived to maintain two 
principles — first, the real spirit of service, and sec- 
ond, economy in administration. No executive sal- 
aries are paid, and all rent, equipment, packing and 
shipping facilities, etc., have been donated. The na- 
tional work is organized under state chairmen whose 
duty it is to start sub-committees in small cities and 
towns throughout their respective states. Each sub- 
committee ships to headquarters for reforwarding to 
Europe. The distribution of supplies in Europe is 
equally well organized. Bureaus run by voluntary 
committees are established in Paris and Bordeaux 
for France and Belgium, in London for England, the 
English Front in Flanders and France, Servia, Salon- 
ika, etc., and in Rome for Italy. Each hospital is 
served on requisition from the nearest Bureau with- 
out delay or duplication. Over 1,800 hospitals are 
served on the Continent. The Committee is officially 
recognized in all countries where it operates. It ap- 
peals to its workers for finished dressings, and, on re- 
quest, supplies full directions for making, packing, 
shipping, etc. It also receives gifts of money with 
which to purchase materials. It cooperates with the 
American Red Cross, the National League for 
Women's Service, and the Women's Department, Na- 
tional Civic Federation. Mrs. Mary Hatch Willard 
is chairman, and Miss Carita Spencer is vice chair- 
man. 

417 



AMERICAN WOMEN AND THE WORLD WAR 

American Women's War Relief Fund, 360 Madi- 
son Ave., New York City, is composed of American 
women married to Englishmen and resident in Eng- 
land, who organized themselves immediately upon 
the outbreak of the war, to express their sym- 
pathy with Great Britain and to aid their adopted 
country. Their first work was to supply six motor 
ambulances for use on the Front, and the seventh am- 
bulance, subscribed by friends in Boston, in the 
United States, was presented to the War Office. The 
offer of the fund to equip and maintain a surgical 
hospital of 200 beds, in South Devon, was accepted 
by the War Office in August, 1915, and this hospital, 
which has treated several thousand cases, both med- 
ical and surgical, with an unusually small death rate, 
has been maintained ever since. The total subscrip- 
tions have amounted to more than $600,000. 

The Stage Women's War Relief has for its slogan 
** Serve or Pay," and its nearly one thousand mem- 
bers literally live up to it. These women have given 
a tremendous personal service in addition to money. 
The organization grew by leaps and bounds, and be- 
fore it was a year old its achievements were remark- 
able. One of the most strikingly successful of its 
undertakings was that of furnishing entertainment 
in the training camps. The first of these was given 
at Fort Myer in the summer of 1917, and proved so 
successful that by fall of that year the New York 
managers had acceded to the request of the organiza- 
tion that a system be worked out by which all the 
camps in the country could be reached. At the 
Twelfth Night Club, New York City, many jars of 
jam and preserves were collected and sent abroad, and 

418 



WAR RELIEF ORGANIZATIONS 

the Fulton Theatre, New York City, was made the 
headquarters to which quantities of old clothes and 
shoes were sent for the destitute people of Europe. 
Mrs. Howard Schnebbe was in charge of this work. 
Communications addressed, Fulton Theatre, 206 West 
46th St., New York City, will receive attention. 

The organization began to do its bit in food pro- 
duction and conservation by taking three acres on 
Long Island and putting it into potatoes, corn and 
garden truck, with the idea of extending this enter- 
prise the following year if the experiment proved suc- 
cessful. Christian Blessing volunteered to oversee 
this work. jMiss Dorothy Donnelly conceived the idea 
that the Stage Women ^s War Relief should have a 
workroom all its own, where only women connected 
with the Theater should work, and this workroom 
has been, from the beginning, one of the busiest places 
in New York. Mrs. Sally Williams Riegel became 
executive manager and Miss Minnie Dupree head of 
the surgical dressings department. Then Grace 
George dreamed a dream and set about to make it 
come true. The Stage Woman ^s War Relief should 
have a base hospital of its own! The Professional 
Woman's League and the Three Arts Club immedi- 
ately cooperated by opening branches for making hos- 
pital garments, and then the children of the stage 
organized to knit and sew for the children of Bel- 
gium. The officers are Rachel Crothers, president; 
Elizabeth Tyree Metcalf, honorary vice president; 
Louise Closser Hale, first vice president; Dorothy 
Donnelly, second vice president; Mary H. Kirkpat- 
rick, secretary; Louise Drew, treasurer; Mrs. J. Stu- 
art Blackton, chairman of Moving Picture Commit- 

419 



AMERICAN WOMEN AND THE WORLD WAR 

tee. The Board of Directors consists of Jessie Bon- 
stelle, May Buckley, Minnie Dupree, Eleanor Gates, 
Mrs. Henry B. Harris, Alice Kaiiser, Frances Starr, 
Laurette Taylor, and Sally Williams Riegel, execu- 
tive manager of Workroom. Headquarters, 366 Fifth 
Ave., New York City. 

An organization that has had almost spectacular 
success is the American Ambulance Millinery Branch, 
which has its general headquarters at 15 West 44th 
Street, New York City. The organization was started 
in May, 1917, on the initiative of Mr. B. J. Garfunkel, 
of New York City. The first meeting was held at the 
Yale Club and the purpose as stated at that meeting 
was to create funds to develop a Millinery Unit in 
connection with the American Ambulance Field Serv- 
ice in France. In six weeks it collected over $45,000. 
The organization has twenty-two general motor trucks 
in operation in France and maintains a ward in the 
American Hospital at Neuilly. The officers are: ex- 
ecutive chairman, Samuel Zucker, New York City; 
treasurer, Alfred L. Simon, New York City; execu- 
tive secretary, B. J. Garfunkel, New York City. 

A number of organizations, prompted by a beauti- 
ful spirit, early in the war undertook what is known 
as ''godmothering." WTiile in many cases this work 
proved to be a boon to lonely soldiers, it was found 
to be impracticable when internationally viewed from 
a military standpoint. While it seemed a pity to 
interrupt work that had been prompted by real 
patriotism and work that often meant so much, it be- 
came necessary for the authorities to issue a state- 
ment to the effect that ' ' godmothering ' ' was not ap- 
proved by the military authorities. Mrs. Philip N. 

420 



WAR RELIEF ORGANIZATIONS 

Moore, chairman of the Health and Recreation Com- 
mittee of the Woman's Committee of the Council of 
National Defense, made it a point to see the Secre- 
tary of War in person and to ask him for information 
on this point. Subsequently a statement went out 
from the Woman's Committee to this effect: 
''Neither the War Department nor the Woman's 
Committee furnishes names of soldiers for 'godmoth- 
ering,' " says Mrs. Philip N. Moore, chairman of the 
Health and Recreation Department of the Woman's 
Committee of the Council of National Defense. 
''While the Department appreciates deeply the fine 
spirit in which the women are offering to write to 
soldiers at the front, the experience of France and 
England has proved that the plan ultimately works 
more harm than good. General Sibert has recently 
issued a statement from France to this effect, and 
shows his marked disapproval of the idea. We re- 
ceive so many letters asking us for names of soldiers 
that a statement should be made through the press 
stating that we are not indorsing the plan. We will 
send out to our state committees a plan of organized 
work which is being done under the direction of the 
Commission on Training Camp Activities. This Com- 
mittee, I understand, has authorized only two agencies 
to take charge of such questions concerning camp ac- 
tivities as that of ' godmothering. ' These are the 
sub-committee on Protective Work for Girls of the 
New York Probation and Protective Association, Miss 
Maud Miner, director, and the 'Hostess Houses* 
Committee under 'Proper Chaperonage for Girls,' 
600 Lexington Avenue, New York City, Miss Kather- 
ine Scott, director." 

421 



CHAPTER XXX 

VACATION ASSOCIATION, NEEDLEWORK GUILD 
AND OTHER AGENCIES 

Organization and growth of Vacation Association War 
Relief — Flotilla Committee and its wonderful work — 
Militia of Mercy — Needlework Guild of America — 
Committee for Men Blinded in Battle— Emergency Aid 
of Pennsylvania — Committee of Mercy and its contri- 
bution of over $2,000,000— Hudson River War Relief- 
League of the Allies — League of Catholic Women — 
Mercy Committee of New Jersey. 

The story of the organization and growth of the 
Vacation Association, Incorporated (New York), is 
full of interest. Just twenty-seven days after the 
outbreak of the war the Vacation War Relief Com- 
mittee of this organization was started. The Vaca- 
tion Association is an integral part of the Woman's 
Department of the National Civic Federation, and its 
name is derived from its initial purpose, which was 
to enable self-supporting girls and women to save 
money for proper and healthful vacations. One of 
the most helpful branches of the work undertaken by 
the War Relief Committee was a free employment 
bureau for the benefit of those who had lost their po- 
sitions because of war conditions. As it was found 
that many of these girls, who had previously earned 
good wages and were in no way charity cases, had 

422 



WAR RELIEF ORGANIZATIONS 

been made practically destitute, it was decided to 
open temporary workrooms where a tide-over wage of 
seventy-five cents a day could be paid on garments 
made for the European emergency hospitals and war 
refugees. The War Relief Committee came into be- 
ing in September, 1914, with Miss Gertrude Robinson 
Smith, chairman. Immediately a number of existing 
organizations cooperated. These included the Depart- 
ment of Correction, the Woman's Auxiliary to the 
Tuberculosis Clinic of the Department of Health, the 
Association of Catholic Charities, the Charity Organ- 
ization Society, the State Charities Aid, the New York 
Association of Women Workers, and the Department 
Store Education Association. Results accomplished 
were remarkable. The Special Case Committee in- 
vestigated all the destitute cases, and all those need- 
ing special relief or medical attention. During the 
first five weeks of its existence the Bureau registered 
849 girls, of which number 188 were placed imme- 
diately. 

In the first year's work of the Committee three 
principles were outlined as being the main object of 
the Committee: first, to meet here in America the 
very serious industrial situation resulting from the 
outbreak of the war ; second, to further in every pos- 
sible way the sending of the much needed supplies to 
the European war sufferers; third, to seek coopera- 
tion wherever possible with other organizations. So 
strikingly successful has been the work of this Com- 
mittee that it has had the cordial cooperation of some 
of the most important organizations in America. 
These include the Association for Improving the Con- 
dition of the Poor, the Federated Employment Bu- 

423 



AMERICAN WOMEN AND THE WORLD WAR 

reau for Jewish Girls, the Lea^e of Catholic Women 
for Social and Civic Reform, the Mayor's Committee 
on Unemployment, the New York Association of 
Women Workers, the State Charities Aid Associa- 
tion, Women's Conference Society for Ethical Cul- 
ture, Young Women's Christian Association, Ameri- 
can Fund for French Wounded, and many other for- 
eign relief societies. 

Mrs. Coffin Van Rensselaer, as chairman of the Em- 
ployment Bureau, has done excellent work. Two ex- 
periments were in progress in the fall of 1917. One 
has to do with vocational help to children at the point 
of leaving school, and the other is a health project for 
the benefit of wage earning girls. The latter is oper- 
ated in connection with the Woman's Municipal 
League, a free clinic, the immediate object of which 
is to make examination and to suggest changes in 
habits, diet, kind of work, etc., when they are de- 
sired. Girls needing medical or surgical care are en- 
couraged to go to the special physicians or dispen- 
saries suitable to their needs. The achievements of 
the workroom committee have been equally notable. 
In fifteen months orders amounting to more than 
$126,000 passed through the order department, of 
which Miss Maude Wetmore is chairman. 

Of especial interest is the work of the Flotilla Com- 
mittee organized in November, 1915, as the result of 
an urgent appeal sent by Mrs. Edith Wliarton for 
surgical motors for the advanced trenches. These 
formations of flotillas, completely equipped, cost $12,- 
000 and consist of five cars each, one carrying a port- 
able operating room with radioscopic apparatus re- 
quiring only two hours to set up ; another a powerful 

424 



WAR RELIEF ORGANIZATIONS 

electric lighting and heating installation; a third, a 
laundry capable of handling six hundred pounds of 
soiled linen at a time ; the fourth, a drying van ; and 
the fifth, an installation for douches, disinfection, de- 
struction of vermin, sterilizing of drinking water and 
shelter tanks. 

The first contribution received was from Mrs. Dan- 
iel Guggenheim, who contributed $12,000, and the 
first Flotilla was sent to the Secoiirs aux Blesses Mili- 
taires in December, 1915. This generous contribution 
greatly stimulated other donations, $32,437 being 
raised in a month. 

Madame Emma Calve offered to assist in organizing 
a French Flotilla Benefit at the Metropolitan Opera 
House. The benefit took place on January 4, 1916, 
and was an enormous success. 

A Militia of Mercy organized in 1916 in New York 
City to care for the children afflicted by infantile 
paralysis has used its large and powerful organization 
in the most effective way for war work. Its first ac- 
tivity was the care of the families of the Navy Mili- 
tiamen. The Comforts Committee sells wool at a 
little more than the wholesale price to the public. 
The profit is used to cover running expenses, and 
what remains is placed in the Special Fund, which is 
used to purchase wool for women who have the time 
to knit but who cannot afford to pay for the wool. 
An old lady in Brooklyn sent to the Militia of Mercy 
a scarf which had been knitted for her husband who 
was a sea captain. He died twenty years ago and 
she had cherished this scarf in his memory. Being 
very poor and wanting to do her bit she sent the scarf 
in the hope that it might help some man in the Navy. 

425 



AMERICAN WOMEN AND THE WORLD WAR 

The Militia of Mercy appreciated the spirit of the gift 
and sent it with an explanatory letter to the com- 
mander of an American battleship and the scarf was 
given to an American sailor. 

Another organization which was doing beautiful 
work when war was declared and which turned the 
current of its effort to war relief is the Needlework 
Guild of America, a *' Bridge from the Island of 
Waste to the Island of Want." This society has 400 
branches scattered over the United States and its 
large membership includes 25,000 directors whose 
duty it is to collect and distribute new, plain suitable 
garments to meet the great need of hospitals, homes 
and other charities. During the flood and tornado 
devastations of 1912 and 1913 the Needlework Guild 
rendered a superb service as it has done in many other 
disasters since it was organized thirty-two years ago. 
Prior to the outbreak of the European War, a branch 
had been established in Lyons, France, which imme- 
diately upon the declaration of hostilities took up war 
relief work. Its first assistance was the clothing of 
Belgian refugees, and as the result of an appeal to the 
members in the United States, $20,000 was sent to 
France in December, 1914, with which workrooms 
were opened in Lyons. More than 300 women were 
given employment and 25,000 garments were dis- 
tributed to the hospitals for the wounded. Nearly 
1,000,000 garments and surgical dressings have been 
distributed in France and sent to her Allies by 173 
branches of the Needlework Guild in America. This 
splendid organization was founded by Mrs. John 
Wood Stewart of Glen Ridge, New Jersey, and Mrs. 
Levi P. Morton of New York City is honorary presi- 

426 



WAR RELIEF ORGANIZATIONS 

dent. The National office is in Philadelphia and the 
organization is affiliated with the American Red 
Cross and the General Federation of Women's Clubs 
and is a member of the National Conference of Chari- 
ties and Correction and the National Council of 
Women of the United States. Mrs. Truman H. New- 
berry, of Detroit, Michigan, is national president, and 
the national vice presidents are Mrs. George Fales 
Baker, Bryn Mawr, Pa. ; Mrs. Robert F. Harding, 
Fort Wayne, Ind. ; Mrs. Samuel Semple, Titusville, 
Pa. ; and Miss Julia M. Wolbert, Tacoma, Wash. 
Mrs. Oliver S. Keely is recording secretary, Mrs. 
Heber Smith, treasurer and Miss Rosamond K. Ben- 
der, corresponding secretary. Mrs. John Wood Stew- 
art is chairman of the War Relief Department, and 
other officers include Mrs. Joseph Guedy, secretary; 
Mrs. Oliver S. Keely, trustee; and Mrs. W. A. Nich- 
ols, Wayne, Pa. ; Mrs. Isaac Gimble, New York City ; 
Mrs. William Spencer, Erie, Pa. ; Mrs. H. J. Harris, 
Glen Ridge, New Jersey; Mrs. William T. Barber, 
Detroit, Mich.; and Mrs. Hoffman Atkinson, New 
York City. The War Relief Office is at 70 Fifth Ave., 
New York City. 

The Committee for Men Blinded in Battle was the 
outcome of the New York Association for the Blind, 
organized in 1906. Its headquarters are at Light 
House No. 1 in New York. The building was offi- 
cially opened by the President of the LTnited States 
and the work was conducted under the presidency of 
the late Honorable Joseph H. Choate. The Commit- 
tee for Men Blinded in Battle was the first organiza- 
tion to be formed to aid the war blind. It has as- 
sisted in various ways, 3,000 men, including eight 

427 



AMERICAN WOMEN AND THE WORLD WAR 

different nationalities, and instruction has been given 
to more than 300. More than 8,000 gifts have been 
made to the war blind, and these unfortunate men 
have been taught and aided in over 50 hospitals. 
A number of these pupils have already taken their 
places in the sighted world as competent wage earn- 
ers. Among the professions taught in the Light 
House are handicraft, languages, typewriting, stenog- 
raphy, commerce, music, modeling, etc. The Com- 
mittee succors and relieves the blind whenever pos- 
sible and gives re-education to such as are fitted to 
profit by its teaching. Mr. John H. Finley is acting 
president and the vice presidents are Miss Winifred 
Holt, William Howard Taft and Charles E. Hughes. 
The honorary chairman is the Bishop of New York, 
the secretary is Mrs. Peter Cooper Hewitt and the 
treasurer, Mr. William Forbes Morgan. Headquar- 
ters, 111 East 59th St., New York. 

One of the most far-reaching organizations for war 
relief in the United States is the Emergency Aid of 
Pennsylvania, which, with 59 associate organizations 
and branches, 33 of which have been formed since 
March 1, 1917, comprises more than four thousand 
members. The central committee, of which Mrs. A. 
J. Cassatt is the chairman, has 26 separate commit- 
tees, the work of each of which is distinct and which 
results in the carrying of relief to virtually all the 
Allied countries, meeting many and diverse needs 
and covering practically the entire gamut of war re- 
lief enterprise. The Emergency Aid is also engaged 
in valuable domestic activities. In all, a total of 
nearly $2,000,000 had been received. The vice chair- 
men are Mrs. Edward Browning, Mrs. John C. 

428 



WAR RELIEF ORGANIZATIONS 

Groome, Mrs. George Q. Horwitz, Mrs. J. Willis 
Martin, Mrs. Cornelius Stevenson, Mrs. E. T. Stotes- 
bury and Mrs. Barclay H. Warburton. Mrs. Thomas 
Robins is secretary, Mrs. Edward K. Rowland, cor- 
responding secretary and Mrs. J. Norman Jackson, 
treasurer. Headquarters, 1428 Walnut St., Philadel- 
phia. 

The Committee of Mercy was established in Oc- 
tober, 1914, with the approval of President Wilson, to 
help the women and children and other noncom- 
batants made destitute by the war. Associated in 
the Committee's formation were Mrs. J. Borden Har- 
riman, Miss Katharine B. Davis, Norman Hapgood, 
John Moffat and T. C. Glen-Coats. Mr. Elihu Root 
is honorary president, and the vice presidents in- 
clude Dr. Charles W. Eliot of Harvard University, 
John Purroy Mitchel, ex-Mayor of New York, Miss 
Katharine B. Davis, chairman, Parole Commis- 
sion of New York, and Mrs. J. Borden Har- 
riman. Mr. August Belmont is treasurer. The 
Committee of Mercy, up to the summer of 
1917, had collected more than $2,065,000. In 
addition to the relief administered through re- 
liable agencies in France, Russia, Armenia, Serbia, 
Montenegro and Poland, considerable sums have been 
raised for other relief committees. Headquarters, 360 
Madison Ave., New York City. 

Immediately upon the declaration of war Mrs. H. 
Fairfield Osborn organized the Hudson River War 
Relief Committee and sub-committees, and sewing and 
knitting socials were established in the small towns 
and villages along the Hudson River. Associated 
with Mrs. Osborn are Mrs. Cornelius R. Agnew, Mrs. 

429 



AMERICAN WOMEN AND THE WORLD WAR 

Vincent Astor, Miss Grace Bigelow, Miss Catherine 
S. Burton, Mrs. Charles DeRahm, Miss Madeline I. 
Dinsmore, Mrs. Cleveland H. Dodge, Mrs. Martin H. 
Glynn, Mrs. Levi P. Morton, Miss Mary Haidane, 
Miss Irene M. Hedges, Miss Gertrude L. Hoyt, Mrs. 
Robert P. Huntington, Mrs. Ogden Mills, Mrs. Archi- 
bald Rogers, Mrs. James Roosevelt, Mrs. Samuel 
Sloan, Mrs. Clarence Page Townsley and Mrs. Fred- 
erick W. Vanderbilt. Headquarters, Room 65, 18 
West 34th St., New York City. 

The league of the Allies, 360 Madison Ave., New 
York City, has for its object relief for the sufferers 
in all the countries affiliated with the Entente in the 
prosecution of the war against the Central Em- 
pires. Money has been raised chiefly by the great 
Allied bazaars held in the Grand Central Palace in 
New York in 1916 and 1917. Among the prominent 
women identified with the work are Mrs. Charles 
B. Alexander, Mrs. Gertrude Atherton, Mrs. H. R. 
Beckwith, Mrs. William Astor Chanler, Lady 
Colebrooke, Mrs. William H. Crocker, Mrs. C. C. 
Cuyler, Miss M. L. de Sadeleer, Mrs. C. H. Ditson, 
Mrs. Newbold Leroy Edgar, Mrs. Jeanne L. Etty, 
Mrs. William Faversham, Mrs. Marshall Field, Jr., 
Mrs. Charles Dana Gibson, Mrs. Benjamin Guinness, 
Mrs. J. Borden Harriman, Mrs. Ernest Iselin, Lady 
Lister Kaye, Mrs. Maurice Kozminiski, Mrs. Charles 
H. Marshall, Miss Elsa Maxwell, Mrs. Walter E. 
Maynard, Miss Margaret Mayo, Mrs. Potter Palmer, 
Mrs. Gifford Pinchot, Mrs. Joseph Pulitzer, Mrs. 
James Lowell Putnam, Mrs. Ralph Sanger, Mrs. J. H. 
Sears, Mrs. William Payne Thompson, Mrs. H. J. 
Whigham and Mrs. Harry Payne WTiitney. Mrs. 

430 



WAR RELIEF ORGANIZATIONS 

Michael Gavin is secretary and Mrs. Andrew W. 
Dougherty is treasurer. 

The League of Catholic Women is a New York 
State organization with branches in various cities. 
Miss Teresa R. O'Donohue is president. Mrs. Nicho- 
las F. Brady, Mrs. Alfred C. Chapin, Miss Elizabeth 
Marbury, and Mrs. Francis Burrall Hoffman are vice 
presidents. Mrs. P. J. Gallagher offered her resi- 
dence, 154 East 38th Street, New York City, as head- 
quarters for the League of Catholic Women for the 
duration of the war. The League cooperates with 
other Catholic organizations and supplies hospital gar- 
ments and other articles made according to Red Cross 
and French standards. Twenty-seven organizations 
of Catholic women are uniting in one great powerful 
committee which is doing nation-wide war work along 
all lines. Headquarters, Woodward Bldg., Washing- 
ton, D. C. Father Louis J. 'Hearn is General Chair- 
man. 

The Mercy Committee of New Jersey, since the war 
began, has sent abroad approximately 70,000 garments 
and more than $10,000. The junior branches have 
also made bandages and have sent a large number to 
Europe through the Red Cross Surgical Dressings 
Committee. The Committee's work is now largely 
devoted to the equipment and reconstruction of the 
military hospital located at Iselin. Mrs. Charles D. 
Freeman is president, Mrs. Fred H. Albee, Mrs. J. 
Kirtland Myers and Mrs. Jabez Gilbert are vice presi- 
dents and Mrs. Chapman Fiske is secretary. Head- 
quarters, Iselin. 

In February, 1917, Columbia University mobilized 
and sent out enrollment blanks to all men and women 

431 



AMERICAN WOMEN AND THE WORLD WAR 

connected in any way with the University. About 
eight thousand women answered and a separate Com- 
mittee of Women's War Work was formed which 
opened its Information Bureau on April 6, 1917. 
This Committee registers for volunteer or paid war 
work, any woman who is or has been connected with 
the University. It supplies information as to courses 
and needs in war activities. It furnishes volunteer 
workers and fills paid positions. It is in close touch 
with other War Organizations in the city and with 
various departments at Washington. Its headquar- 
ters are in Room 301, Philosophy Hall, Columbia Uni- 
versity, New York City; chairman of the Committee 
on Women's War Work, Virginia C. Gildersleeve ; 
executive secretary, Virginia Newcomb. 



CHAPTER XXXI 

SPECIAL AID SOCIETY, AND WORK OF 
JEWISH WOMEN 

National Special Aid Society — Trench Comforts Packet 
Committee — Artists' Committee of One Hundred — 
White Cross Guard movement — Southern Women's 
Patriotic Committee — Physicians, Surgeons and Den- 
tists' Fund — Council of Jewish Women and some of its 
cooperating organizations — Joint Distribution Commit- 
tee of Fund for Jewish War Sufferers — Zionist organ- 
izations — Authors' League fund. 

One of the largest and most important of America's 
"War Relief Organizations is the National Special Aid 
Society with headquarters at 259 Fifth Avenue, Nev7 
York City. Mrs. William Alexander is president, 
Mrs. Charles Frederick Hoffman, vice president, and 
Mrs. Henry A. Wise Wood, secretary. The Society 
was formed in 1915. It has 2,000 members in New 
York and 30,000 in the Nation. It has achieved many 
remarkable things. When it was two years old it 
had presented six automobiles to the Navy and Ma- 
rine Corps. With very marked success it has con- 
ducted patriotic lectures and it has assisted in re- 
cruiting and training aviators. One of its most ac- 
tive and efficient committees is that devoted to avia- 
tion. Through this committee a hospital for the Navy 
Militia has been built at Bay Shore, and a number 

433 



AMERICAN WOMEN AND THE WORLD WAR 

of aviators have been sent abroad. An ambulance 
was presented to the Marine Corps and funds for its 
upkeep for one year. Three beds have been endowed 
in the hospital at Paris. The Society acts as a clear- 
ing house for the National Union of Women Workers 
of England; has given three motor trucks to the Na- 
tional Guard Regiment; provides free French lessons 
for nurses going to France, and also supplies surgical 
dressings and hospital supplies for the Red Cross, 
clothing for the French children and books and sup- 
plies for the Navy Militia and Aviation Schools. It 
is safe to say that among the many relief organiza- 
tions formed by American women none have achieved 
more than has the National Special Aid Society 
through its various activities. 

The Trench Comfort Packet Committee for the 
United States and her Allies, headquarters, Lord and 
Taylors, Fifth Ave., New York City, has approximately 
one hundred communities at work and is organizing in 
all of the states. Like the National Surgical Dressings 
Committee of America, of which Mrs. Mary Hatch 
Willard is also chairman, the formation of the Trench 
Comfort Packets for the United States and her Allies 
was the outcome of one of Mrs. Willard 's visits to 
France, where she saw how greatly the men at the 
military depot en route for the trenches appreciated 
warm clothing and the small comforts and necessities 
which every soldier needs. The scope of the Commit- 
tee's work originally was to supply comfort packets 
for the armies of the Entente Allies^ but this has now 
been broadened to include packets for the American 
troops. Many thousand packets have been sent to 
England, France, Belgium, Italy and Russia. 

434 



WAR RELIEF ORGANIZATIONS 

A beautiful story of real service and self-sacri- 
ficing fraternalism is told in the records of the Ameri- 
can Artists' Committee of One Hundred of which Mr. 
"William A. Coffin, N. A., is chairman. Among the 
prominent women members of the Committee are: 
Alice Worthington Ball, Cecilia Beaux, N. A., Mary 
Greene Blumenschein, A. N. A., Lucia Fairchild 
Fuller, A. N. A., Mary B. Hazleton, Adele Herter, 
Anna Vaughn Hyatt, A. N. A., Ella Condie Lamb, 
Evelyn Beatrice Longman, A. N. A., Mary Fairchild 
Low, A. N. A., Lilla Cabot Perry, Edith Mitchill 
Prellwitz, A. N. A., May Wilson Preston, Harriet 
Sartain, Janet Scudder, Sarah Choate Sears, Helen 
D. Sortwell, Anne Crane, Louise Cox, A. N. A., and 
Jane Peterson. 

Of the accomplishments and future plans of the 
Committee, Mr. Coffin says: 

* ' The first steps toward the formation of the Ameri- 
can Artists' Committee of One Hundred were taken 
as early as August 20, 1914, three weeks after the 
beginning of the Great War. The Committee was 
organized September 25th, and our first remittance 
($1,500.00) was cabled to M. Bonnat on the fourteenth 
of October. In the two years of the war we sent, 
in all, to Paris, for the relief of the families of French 
Soldier-Artists — mothers, wives, children, little broth- 
ers and sisters and other dependents — the sum of 
$21,675.00, or some 125,000 francs. This we consider 
a gratifying result of our efforts and it is fair to say 
that by far the greater part of the money has come 
from American artists, though we have had, also, 
numerous contributions from our friends. From Oc- 
tober, 1914, to July 4, 1915, we remitted from our 

435 



AMERICAN WOMEN AND THE WORLD WAR 

general fund $5,500.00, and from the proceeds of our 
Exhibition at the Knoedler Galleries,- in February, 
$11,575.00, a total of $17,075.00. Since July, 1915, 
we have been able to send only $4,600.00, for the great 
multitude of appeals seemed to make it increasingly 
difficult to obtain contributions. We hope to con- 
tinue in our own field our help, through the wide- 
reaching organization of the Fraternite des Artistes, 
to the dependents of the artist-soldiers at the front 
and of those who have, alas! been killed in battle. 
Many fine young lives in the budding of their talent 
and others in its full flower have been laid on the 
altar of their country; other artist-soldiers have been 
blinded or maimed for life. Think of a painter or a 
sculptor whose arms are cut off or of one whose eyes 
are gone forever! 

"The Committee of the Fraternite, headed by M. 
Leon Bonnat, whose indefatigable devotion in the 
present crisis is admired throughout all France, is a 
working, and in no sense an honorary committee. 
The Fraternite membership includes painters, sculp- 
tors, architects, engravers and other art workers be- 
longing to the great French art societies, without re- 
gard to creed, whether academic or revolutionary. 
All are united for the common cause and they have 
done and are doing much, in spite of the standstill 
caused by the War, to help the destitute families of 
their confreres at the front. They have shown us by 
every means in their power and hy many beautiful 
and heartfelt expressions of gratitude their apprecia- 
tion of our work and of the support of our friends. 
Our sympathy and our material aid — perhaps, I may 
say, the way we have conveyed this aid to them, hon- 

436 



WAR RELIEF ORGANIZATIONS 

oring ourselves in doing so — have comforted them and 
have drawn to us, in sympathetic relations, a far 
wider circle than the art world of Paris. Art may 
have no nationality, as has often been said, but the 
American artists and those of France, always closely 
interdependent before the War, have, since its out- 
break, been united by a stronger bond, one of friend- 
ship and brotherhood, that I am sure will endure 
through coming generations. We seek to still fur- 
ther widen these relations and bring within the bond 
many more who recognize our debt and the debt of 
world civilization to the valiant country that is fight- 
ing for the cause of liberty and for the ideals that we 
cherish and believe wdll prevail. 

' ' We conduct our work in the most economical way 
possible and our total expense account (including the 
exhibition in 1915) shows it to be but 4.60% of 
our gross receipts. Our account is kept with the 
Fifth Avenue Bank, New York, which acts as our 
remitting agency to the Credit Lyonnais, and our 
credits in Paris are payable to M. Leon Bonnat, who 
cables acknowledgement as soon as money is paid 
over. I may close with a brief extract from one of 
his earliest letters, written in his own hand — and I 
translate — ^How far away, my dear Coffin, seem now 
the quiet days when we were absorbed with other 
preoccupations, when we were busy with other strug- 
gles — those of pure art! But those days, I am con- 
vinced, will come back to us. It is not possible that 
the efforts our valiant sons are making will not be 
rewarded.' " 

The White Cross Guard Movement was started by 
Miss Adella Potter of the Woman's Suffrage Party of 

437 



AMERICAN WOMEN AND THE WORLD WAR 

New York State in the spring of 1917 after the sol- 
diers were first mobilized. This suffrage association 
had been very active in war work, assisting in taking 
the military census, organizing Ked Cross groups, 
starting farming, gardening, etc. Realizing the need 
of work among the soldiers the organization began the 
White Cross Guard Movement. There are no officers 
and no dues, but in various localities a button has been 
worked out which bears a white maltese cross on a 
Belgian-blue background. Women living near large 
encampments are asked to get in touch with the chap- 
lains of all regiments stationed there and to work out 
with them and the Y. M. C. A. secretaries a plan for 
establishing reading rooms, rest rooms, etc. The Or- 
ganization has also looked after isolated soldiers who 
are guarding bridges, trestles and tunnels, and who are 
not reached by the moral work of the encampment. 
Work has also been done among the girls, teaching 
them their duty in the national crisis, and an appeal 
is also made to the soldiers themselves, urging them 
that they honor at all times the uniforms they wear. 
The New York Southern Women's Patriotic Com- 
mittee was founded by Mrs. Algernon Sydney Sulli- 
van, and cooperates with other war relief societies for 
the American Army and Navy. The president is 
Mrs. Richard Kingsman Cautley, and the vice presi- 
dents are Dr. Rosalie Slaughter Morton, Mrs. Isa Car- 
rington Cabell, Mrs. Livingston Rowe Schuyler, and 
Mrs. Silas F. Catchings ; Mrs. N. P. Gatling is record- 
ing secretary, Mrs. C. F. Houston, corresponding sec- 
retary, and Mrs. Francis E. Hill, treasurer. The 
New York Southern Women's Patriotic Committee 
tendered its services to the United States Government 

438 



WAR RELIEF ORGANIZATIONS 

and received personal letters from the President of 
the United States and from the Secretary of War. 

The Physicians, Surgeons and Dentists' Fund, 16 
East 47th St., New York City, has for its purpose 
the raising of money for the purchase of instruments 
and supplies by the physicians, surgeons and den- 
tists of the United States. In a short time more 
than $12,000 was received in subscriptions, of which 
amount $8,500 was forwarded to the American War 
Relief Clearing House in Paris for the purpose 
of purchasing medical, surgical and dental in- 
struments and supplies. Supplies of the same char- 
acter have been purchased in the United States and 
forwarded to Paris, costing nearly $4,000, in addition 
to which a large number of instruments and supplies 
have been donated here and forwarded to France. 

The Jewish women through their national organi- 
zation, the Council of Jewish Women, have been ex- 
tremely active in various lines of war work. Mrs. 
Nathaniel E. Harris, of Bradford, Pennsylvania, is 
president, and the honorary vice presidents are Mrs. 
Jacob H. Schiff, New York City; Mrs. A. N. Cohen, 
New York City; Mrs. Hugo Rosenberg, Pittsburgh, 
Pa.; Mrs. Solomon Hirsch, Portland, Oregon; Mrs. 
M. C. Sloss, San Francisco, Calif. ; Mrs. Ceasar Misch, 
Providence, R. I.; and Mrs. Isidor Newman, New 
Orleans, Louisiana. Other officers are Mrs. Eli Herts- 
berg, San Antonio, Texas ; Miss Rose Brenner, Brook- 
lyn, N. Y. ; Mrs. Harry Glicksman, New Haven, Conn. ; 
Mrs. Leo H. Herz, New Haven, Conn.; and Mrs. 
Ernestine B. Dreyfus, Kansas City, Mo. The Coun- 
cil cooperates with the National League for Woman's 
Service and is a constituent member of the National 

439 



AMERICAN WOMEN AND THE WORLD WAR 

Council of Women. The Council has eighty-nine sec- 
tions and is represented in the State Divisions of the 
Woman's Committee of the Council of National De- 
fense in every state where these sections are organ- 
ized. The membership is about 22,000. Perhaps the 
most interesting of the active war work undertaken 
by the Council is that of Immigrant Aid, which was 
readjusted to meet war conditions. A scheme was 
put into operation to meet shifting labor conditions 
as they effect Jewish girls and alien young women, 
particularly in emergency employments, with a view 
to securing proper housing for large groups who may 
be recruited for special government work, and of put- 
ting them into touch with educational influences 
through Citizenship Leagues and Classes. The Coun- 
cil's plans for Americanization and vocational guid- 
ance is unique and offers opportunity for important 
constructive work. The National Chairman of the 
Department of Immigrant Aid is Miss Helen Wink- 
ler, who has offices at 242 East Broadway, New York 
City. 

The Council of Jewish Women was the first organi- 
zation to lend their aid as a body to the League for 
Woman's Service. A resolution offered by Mrs. Ko- 
hut, to the effect that the Council members should do 
all in their power for the cause, but whatever work 
they undertake they should enter as ''Citizens" and 
not as "Jews" was unanimously adopted. Hundreds 
of the Council members are now working with the 
Woman's Service League. 

The Emanuel Sisterhood, of which Mrs. Rebecca 
Kohut is president, was the first sisterhood to or- 
ganize a neighborhood settlement. This Sisterhood, 

440 



WAR RELIEF ORGANIZATIONS 

located on the East Side of New York, is composed of 
poor East Side women who are recipients of pensions 
from the Emanuel sisterhood. Every Monday, Tues- 
day, Wednesday and Thursday, finds these women 
arduously working for the cause. They sew, knit, 
roll bandages and give whatever help they can. Ac- 
cording to Mrs. Kohut, the regularity with which they 
come, the many hours they actually steal from house- 
hold duties to lend a helping hand and the enthusiasm 
with which they work have been a great surprise to 
the organizers of the movement. 

Miss Pauline Goldmark is an active worker on the 
Committee of Labor. Dr. Jessica Pexiotta is chair- 
man of the Defense Committee of San Francisco. 
Annie Nathan Meyer is associated with the Food 
Preservation Committee of New York City. Mrs. 
Daniel Guggenheim has raised over half a million 
dollars for the Liberty Loan Fund. Miss Sophie 
Berger is in Europe in charge of a unit of the Red 
Cross Committee, in charge of the woman's work. 
Mrs. Rebecca Kohut is chairman of the Woman *s 
Committee of Employment on National Defense. 
This is sort of an employment clearing house whose 
purpose is the mobilization of women and employees 
and the proper shifting of women into men's places 
in the various industries. This organization places 
at the rate of about 2,000 women per week in various 
positions; about twenty-five per cent, of this number 
are taking the places of men. 

Mrs. Edwin Vogel opened a Red Cross factory on 
the Jersey coast; this has now been transferred to 
New York City. Over 150 women were employed 
there during the summer and continue work during 

441 



AMERICAN WOMEN AND THE WORLD WAR 

the winter. Up to date they have already made more 
than 100,000 garments for the soldiers. 

Mrs. Sidney Borg, who is on the committee for the 
National League for Woman's Service, is taking an 
active part in the social welfare work among girls. 
She is specially fitted for this work, being president 
of the Jewish Big Sisters. 

The Joint Distribution Committee of the Fund for 
Jewish War Sufferers, 20 Exchange Place, New York 
City, comprises the three Jewish committees collect- 
ing money for Jewish war relief — the American 
Jewish Relief Committee, the Central Committee 
for the Relief of Jews suffering through the war, 
and the People's Committee. This organization has 
disbursed in Europe and in Palestine more than 
$8,000,000 for the relief of Jewish war sufferers. A 
statement from this Committee is as follows: ''The 
Jewish Relief Committees have raised and have dis- 
bursed through the Joint Distribution Committee a 
larger sum than any other individual relief agencies, 
having had the support of the entire Ajuerican 
Jewry. ' ' 

The Jewish people of America have, through or- 
ganizations, raised handsome sums for relief work 
among the Jewish war sufferers in Europe. A New 
York philanthropist proposed to the American Jew- 
ish Relief Committee to defray the entire cost to 
raise a fund of several million dollars on Yom Kip- 
pur in the Orthodox Synagogues in the country. 
Thus, all money collected as a result of this movement 
will be used for the relief of suffering. In order to 
forward the movement, a speakers' bureau was or- 
ganized, headed by Mr. Nathan Straus and George 

442 



WAR RELIEF ORGANIZATIONS 

Otto A. Rosalsky. Two thousand men known for 
their eloquence were organized into a speakers' staff. 

The Woman's Proclamation Society, the National 
Woman's Organization for Jewish War Relief, has 
branches in all the leading cities of America and na- 
tional headquarters at 203 Broadway, New York City. 
This committee is working in the interest of the ten 
million dollar fund which is being raised among the 
Jewish people of America for war relief. The com- 
mittee has issued for the benefit of the fund in which 
it is interested the story of Lorena Cohen, of Mem- 
phis, Tenn., who was one of a few young women 
refugees who escaped from the war zone early in 
1917, coming from Kovno, in Lithuania, after the 
German occupation. Miss Cohen's story is that of 
an eyewitness. She describes the frightful scenes of 
suffering, starvation and death to be encountered on 
every side among the Jews in the war zone; she de- 
picts what it means for old men and women and 
children to be compelled to flee before invading 
armies without raiment sufficient to keep out the cold, 
without food or shelter — a condition which confronts 
hundreds of thousands of Jews in Lithuania and mil- 
lions throughout the war zone. The officers of the 
Woman's Proclamation Committee are: chairman, 
Mrs. Samuel Elkeles; treasurer, Mrs. Alfred Blumen- 
thal; executive secretary, Mrs. Albert Lucas. 

Hadassah is the Women's Zionist organization af- 
filiated with the Federation of American Zionists. 
Its work in war is chiefly in the interest of the es- 
tablishment of a system of district visiting nursing in 
Palestine. It has chapters in Baltimore, Boston, 
Chattanooga, Chicago, Cincinnati, Cleveland, Denver, 

443 



AMERICAN WOMEN AND THE WORLD WAR 

Detroit, Jacksonville, Kansas City, Los Angeles, New 
Brunswick, New London, New Rochelle, New York, 
Newark, Norfolk, Portsmouth, Norwich, Perth Am- 
boy, Philadelphia, Portland, Maine, Providence, Read- 
ing, Rochester, St. Paul, Schenectady, Syracuse, 
Worcester, Youngstown. Collections for the Ameri- 
can Zionist Medical Unit for Palestine, which had 
reached the sum of $30,219.99, were interrupted, as 
the military situation in Palestine was such that it 
was impossible to secure entry into the country. As 
soon as the road from Egypt to Gaza and thence from 
Jaffa to Jerusalem is opened, operations in equipping 
this unit will be resumed. Reports are several months 
old when they reach the American office, but during 
the last months of 1917 they indicated increased mor- 
tality, dimished resistance to disease on account of 
starvation, excessive cost of drugs and food when they 
are obtainable, and inadequate medical service. The 
American office is located at 44 East 23d Street, New 
York City. The chairman is Henrietta Szold, the 
treasurer is Sophia Berger. 

The Authors' League Fund is designed to aid, in 
case of need, those engaged in literary, artistic or 
musical composition. No profession offers more 
poignant instances of suffering than that of arts and 
letters. All too frequently the creative man pays 
the penalty of his idealism. For the most part he is 
dependent on personal daily effort, and the immedi- 
ate sale of his work, and any failure of his market, 
any change in economic conditions affects him in- 
stantly. He has no stocks and bonds to furnish an 
income when he is called to the colors, or when his 
health fails. 

444 



WAR RELIEF ORGANIZATIONS 

Thus far the fund has been able to care for most of 
the cases that have come to it, but there is vital need 
for a much larger fund in order that the many cases 
already resulting from war conditions may be in- 
vestigated and relieved. All deserving cases, whether 
within the membership or without it, are carefully 
and promptly considered. The organization attempts 
to enroll those whose sympathies are with a worthy 
craft, some of whose members now find themselves 
in need of a friendly hand to help them over this 
period. The officers are: president, Gertrude Ather- 
ton; first vice president, George Barr Baker; second 
vice president, Charles Dana Gibson; treasurer, Eric 
Schuler; directors, Gertrude Atherton, Irving 
Bacheller, George Barr Baker, Rex Beach, Ellis 
Parker Butler, Irvin S. Cobb, John Huston Finley, 
Hamlin Garland, Charles Dana Gibson, Rupert 
Hughes, "Will Irwin, Cleveland Moffett, Harvey 
O'Higgins, Ignace Paderewski, Emily Price Post, 
Leroy Scott, Charles Scribner, Mrs. James Speyer, 
Julian Street, Roger B. Whitman, Jesse Lynch Wil- 
liams, Mrs. Payne Whitney. 



CHAPTER XXXII 

RELIEF FOR BELGIUM 

American relief work for Belgium — American Com- 
mittee for War Charities of Queen of Belgium — Sou du 
Mutile — Committee for Relief of Belgium — Prisoners 
in Germany — Oeuvre Beige du Lait pour les Petits — La 
Sante de VEnfance — Mayfair War Relief — Millicent 
Sutherland Ambulance — King Albert's Civilian Hos- 
pital Fund. 

Scarcely had brave little Belgium entered upon 
her long season of horror and hardship before Ameri- 
can women were planning to help the starving women 
and children of the invaded districts. It is signifi- 
cant that an American woman, Mrs. Vernon Kellogg, 
of California, was a member of the American Com- 
mission for Relief in Belgium, of which Mr. Herbert 
Hoover was chairman. Of the wonderful work done 
by women in these trying days in starving Belgium 
Mr. Hoover himself said: ''This service has been 
given, not by tens, but by thousands, and it is a 
service that in turn has summoned a devotion, kindli- 
ness and tenderness in the Belgian and French women 
that has welded all classes with the spiritual bond 
unknown in any people before. It has implanted in 
the national heart and the national character a qual- 
ity which is in some measure a compensation for the 
calamities through which these people are passing. 

446 



WAR RELIEF ORGANIZATIONS 

The soul of Belgium received a grievous wound, but 
the women of Belgium are stanching the flow — sus- 
taining and leading this stricken nation to greater 
strength and to greater life." Of America's part in 
the great work of relief for starving Belgium Mr. 
Hoover said: ''The pathos of the long lines of ex- 
pectant, chattering mites, each with a ticket of au- 
thority pinned to its chest or held in a grimy fist, 
never depresses the mind of childhood. In this work 
America has a duty and the women of America a 
privilege. ' ' 

In her thrilling story of how the women of Belgium 
turned their tragedies to triumph Mrs. Kellogg has 
expressed the beautiful spirit of woman's service and 
woman's devotion. How American women have ful- 
filled their obligation to stricken Belgium is told in 
the history of the organizations that are doing relief 
work for Belgium. 

The American Committee collecting for the war 
charities of the Queen of Belgium was formed by 
American sympathizers to assist Queen Elizabeth of 
the Belgians in her work among the destitute and 
stricken people of that oppressed country. The com- 
mittee cooperates with the War Relief Clearing House 
for France and her Allies. There is also a cooperat- 
ing committee in Paris of which Mrs. William G. 
Sharp, wife of the American ambassador, is honorary 
president. American Office, 360 Madison Ave., New 
York City. 

The Sou du Mutile is one of the most important 
Belgian relief organizations and is recognized by the 
Belgian Government. It is patronized by their Majes- 
ties King Albert and Queen Elizabeth. When Mr. 

447 



AMERICAN WOMEN AND THE WORLD WAR 

Stalins submitted the plan for this organization to the 
Government he was at once greatly encouraged by the 
Belgian Ministers Vandervelde, Carton de Wiart and 
Poullet. In the latter part of 1916, one of the great- 
est honors that may be conferred upon an organization 
was granted to the Sou du Mutile. M. Poulet, Bel- 
gian Minister at the Hague, at the request of M. Schol- 
laert, Minister at Havre, in charge of the supervision 
of the war relief charities, informed the committee 
that the Sou du Mutile had been recognized by the 
Belgian Government as of public utility and placed 
under its control. 

Of the work one of the officers said: "At the end 
of the war, nearly all the different organizations that 
are now collecting funds for the victims of this 
gigantic struggle, will see their activities ended. Re- 
garding the 'Sou du Mutile/ it is quite different and 
the real task, that of aiding our brave mutilated, 
blinded soldiers, will only have begun for us. The 
principal aim of the Committee is to furnish these 
men with the necessary funds, so that they may be 
able to start, in Belgium under the supervision of the 
Government, small commercial enterprises which will 
enable them to earn again their living. The neces- 
sarily small allowance given them by the Govern- 
ment would, indeed, be insufficient for their support 
and that of their families. You see thus that the Sou 
du Mutile will prove an extremely great help in the 
reestablishment of ordinary living of our maimed 
soldiers. ' ' 

The Sou du Mutile has been placed in New York 
under the auspices of M. Pierre Moli, Belgian Con- 
sul General, and Rev. J. F. Stillemans, president of 

448 



WAR RELIEF ORGANIZATIONS 

the Belgian Relief Fund and director of the Belgian 
Bureau. 

The U. S. A. Section of Committee for Relief of 
Belgian Prisoners in Germany, 360 Madison Ave., 
New York City, is one of the most important of the 
relief organizations of America. Entirely upon the 
activities of this organization depend the lives of 
more than 40,000 Belgian prisoners of war who are 
in danger of starving and freezing to death. They 
cannot receive either messages or food or clothing 
from their families or homes, and these must be sup- 
plied through the Committee, which, upon request, 
supplies any contributor with the name of a pris- 
oner and on behalf of that person will send parcels 
regularly to the prisoner, undertaking to see that 
he receives the parcel safely. The name of a pris- 
oner for adoption will be furnished upon applica- 
tion. Up to June, 1917, receipts for the Belgian 
prisoners amounted to 2,500,000 francs. The Com- 
mittee requires 650,000 francs each month to supply 
food and clothing to these prisoners. The American 
Committee consists of Mrs. William Astor Chanler, 
Mrs. W. Corcoran Eustis, Mrs. J. Borden Harriman, 
Mrs. Pierre Mali, Mrs. Walter E. Maynard, Hon. 
Louis de Sadeleer, Mrs. W. Douglas Sloane, Mrs. W. 
Payne Thompson, Mrs. Fiske Warren, Mrs. H. Fish 
Webster, Miss Maude K. Wetmore, and Mrs. E. Whar- 
ton. 

Besides the meritorious work of the American Aid 
for Homeless Belgian Children, which aims particu- 
larly to help Belgian children in France, two other 
institutions have been started since 1916 for the pro- 
tection of the children of invaded Belgium. 

449 



AMERICAN WOMEN AND THE WORLD WAH 

After the sacrilegious invasion of Belgium, seven 
million people were captives in their own country 
under the most barbarian rule. According to official 
information, conditions among the Belgian popula- 
tion were getting desperate, a great number of the 
poorer classes dying of privation and lack of proper 
nourishment. Among them were more than one mil- 
lion little children, greatly debilitated on account of 
lack of food, and the death rate among them increased 
appallingly. 

These two institutions are doing wonderful work 
and are highly patronized by the Belgian Govern- 
ment; one, the Oeuvre Beige du Lait pour les Petits 
(Milk for the Belgian Babies) has its headquarters 
in Antwerp ; the other. La Sante de I'Enfance (Health 
of the Children ) , in Brussels. 

Both have a committee in Holland, where they are 
sending the most affected children for a vacation of 
three or four weeks, this in accordance with an agree- 
ment made with the Dutch authorities and the Ger- 
man Governor of Invaded Belgium. 

The most important work is done in Belgium, where 
branches of the committees have been created in the 
largest cities and towns, to take care of the children 
at home. Besides this, "special homes" have been 
organized in the healthiest parts of the country, 
where the children are sent for a vacation and a pe- 
riod of proper nourishment. 

Both are patronized by the Belgian Legation at 
Washington, the Belgian Consuls in the United 
States, and the Hon. L. de Sadeleer, Belgian Minister 
of State, residing in New York. Assistance has been 
given to these institutions by many Americans, by 

450 



WAR RELIEF ORGANIZATIONS 

the Belgian Relief Committee of the Emergency Aid 
of Philadelphia, Pa., by the Belgian Relief Commit- 
tee of New York, etc. Miss Marie-Louise de Sadeleer, 
daughter of the Belgian Minister of State, has ren- 
dered a valuable service by forwarding all donations 
to the directors of the Oeuvre Beige du Lait pour les 
Petit s and La Sante de VEnfance, through the 
courtesy of His Excellency the Honorable Prosper 
Poullet, Minister of Science and Fine Arts of Bel- 
gium, who has a permanent office at The Hague, Hol- 
land. All gifts reach these institutions in full, no 
expenses being deducted therefrom. 

Miss Marie-Louise de Sadeleer may be addressed 
c/o Belgian Consulate, 25 Madison Avenue, New 
York, N. Y. 

The Mayfair War Eelief, 657 Fifth Ave., New 
York City, was organized at the outbreak of the 
war to supply relief to the Belgian refugees, but its 
activities have since been expanded, and during 1916 
and 1917 several hundred thousand articles have been 
sent to the hospitals abroad. There are forty-two 
sustaining members who support a guaranteed fund 
which covers current expenses. There are a number 
of sub-committees established throughout the country, 
and the special package department has become of 
large importance to the friends and relatives of French 
and Belgian soldiers, their neglected families and the 
refugees from evacuated regions. The Boy Comrade 
Service handles correspondence from more than 1,800 
American boys with French, Belgian and British sol- 
diers. 

Approximately $150,000 has been raised in the 
United States for the support of the hospital es- 

451 



AMERICAN WOMEN AND THE WORLD WAR 

tablished by the Duchess of Sutherland during the 
early part of the invasion of Belgium, later taken over 
by the Red Cross with the Duchess of Sutherland in 
charge. This is known as the Millicent Sutherland 
Ambulance. Mrs. Benjamin Guinness is Chairman 
for the American Committee. American office, No. 8 
Washington Square, North, New York City. 

Miss Elizabeth Gaskell Norton and Miss Sara Nor- 
ton, of Boston, have, without the formation of an 
American committee, sent funds to the British Sec- 
tion of the Belgian Official Committee of Help for 
Refugees in France, which charity is for the King 
Albert's Civilian Hospital Fund of Belgium. The 
object of the Fund is to assist Belgium maternity 
homes and creches. Many garments and other sup- 
plies have been forwarded for this purpose, includ- 
ing $1,100 realized from a booth conducted by these 
young ladies at the Allied Bazaar of Boston. 



CHAPTER XXXIII 

RELIEF WORK IN FRANCE 

American Women who have given generously of their 
time and means — What the American Canteen means 
to the soldiers — American Relief Clearing House — War 
Relief Clearing House for France and her Allies — 
American Ambulance Hospital in Paris — Committee 
for Training Maimed Soldiers — Edith Wharton's war 
charities — Le Paquet du Soldat. 

It is said that there is not a single canteen in 
France, of all the long line of rest and refreshment 
stations, where the American and French Red Cross 
are united, v^^here somebody's genius for home-making 
is not bringing an unexpected bit of comfort or 
beauty. And wherever this home spirit is expressed 
its influence is immediately and widely felt. ''There 
is a canteen where an American woman has planted a 
flower bed along a munition factory wall," says 
Marion Bonsall Davis; **and here is another where 
a French soldier left a book for his comrades to write 
or draw sudden inspiration; in this are found 
tributes to lost comrades and touching stories of 
great sacrifices — it is a book which may help future 
generations of France to love and understand this 
generation. Here is still another canteen where a 
woman worker has made a shelf for children's toys 
for small visitors. And here, at a great railroad sta- 
tion where the troop trains start for the front, 

453 



AMERICAN WOMEN AND THE WORLD WAR 

Madame Courcol takes the flowers or the lovely weeds 
and grasses which have been decorating her refresh- 
ment truck and fastens them high and jauntily to the 
end of the train just before it moves out — the field 
flowers, and the lilies and the flag of France, for 
which men give their lives/' 

Many American women who were living abroad 
when war was declared are volunteers in the Red 
Cross canteen service. The nearer they are to the 
front line and the more frequently their sheds or 
their cellars or their dugouts are bombarded, the more 
tenderly do they hang green branches to the door, 
festoon the ceiling with bright colors or tack some 
heartening picture on the blank wall. 

In Paris the Woman's War Relief Corps was or- 
ganized in the fall of 1917 under the presidency of 
Mrs. Sharp, wife of the United States Ambassador, 
and many American women are prominently identi- 
fied with the work, which is mentioned in another 
chapter. 

Madame Waddington is chairman of the advisory 
board and Mrs. R. W. Bliss is chairman of the execu- 
tive committee. Among those on the board of di- 
rectors are : Mrs. Edith Wharton, Mrs. Shurtleff, who 
has long been identified with relief work in Paris, 
Mrs. W. K. Vanderbilt, who has done so much in 
connection with the American Ambulance, Miss Es- 
ther Cleveland, Mrs. George Monroe, who has charge 
of the auxiliary nurses, and many other well-known 
of the Red Cross circles and Mrs. Bradley, wife of 
Colonel Bradley of General Pershing's Staff, is at the 
head of the Woman's Auxiliary Committee of the 
American Red Cross Military Hospital. 

454 



WAR RELIEF ORGANIZATIONS 

Mrs. Theodore Roosevelt, Jr., works regularly in 
the Y. M. C. A. Canteen. Mrs. Whitlaw Reid, Mrs. 
Kermit Roosevelt and her mother, and Mrs. Willard 
are also interested in war work in Paris. Mrs. 
Vincent Astor has interested herself in canteen work, 
and Mrs. W. K. Vanderbilt and Miss Elsie De Wolfe 
are helping the Red Cross. 

Among other well-known American women who 
are active in relief work in France may be men- 
tioned Mrs. Willard, Mrs. Vanderbilt, Mrs. Edith 
Wharton, Mrs. Shurtleff and Mrs. Benjamin Gi- 
rault Lathrop, chairman of the Paris depot of 
the American Fund for French Wounded. Mrs. 
Lathrop has done an especially beautiful work amid 
many difficulties and at the cost of great personal 
sacrifice. She worked early and late, sick and well, 
at home and in the office. She went constantly be- 
tween Paris and London, and at the latter place one 
of her young daughters was in frail health. It was 
said that the tremendous growth and superb service 
of the American Fund for French Wounded was 
largely because Mrs. Lathrop had a genius for 
the personal touch in things. Miss Vail, treas- 
urer of the same organization, a relative of Mrs. 
Schuyler Van Rensselaer and a gifted woman, has 
also given unstintingly of herself to the cause of suf- 
fering France. Miss Adeline Gracie, also lavish in 
her expenditure of time and means, of strength and 
spirit, made her canteen an unforgettable thing to the 
men who passed her way. She is a sister of the late 
Colonel Archibald Gracie. Miss Gracie was at work 
on the field so early, and her service was such a beauti- 
ful one, that it is a pleasure to record even this slight 

455 



AMERICAN WOMEN AND THE WORLD WAR 

recognition of her work. Miss Mabel Davison has 
worked unceasingly to help the blind, both in the 
government institution and at Miss Holt's famous 
Light House. Miss Davison held the light for many 
stumbling feet over there in blood-stained France, 
and perhaps no individual has brought more comfort 
and more cheer to the desperate and the hopeless 
than she. 

France came to the aid of America in the gravest 
crisis of her history, and it is not to be wondered at 
that, early in the war, France became the object of 
tenderest solicitude to American women. The record 
of suffering alleviated and of faith sustained will 
never be written. By the end of 1917 there were 
something like thirty organizations and branch or- 
ganizations in America doing war relief work for 
France. 

Early in the war there was formed in France under 
the sanction of the French Government the Ameri- 
can Relief Clearing House, with the Honorable Robert 
Bacon as honorary president, and Mr. H. H. Harjes 
as president, with the object, among others, of re- 
ceiving and properly distributing contributions for 
the relief of sufferers of France and her allies. For 
the purpose of cooperating with this movement in 
France a complementary association was formed in 
America under the name of War Relief Clearing 
House for France and her allies. This organization, 
working in close affiliation with the one in France 
which is recognized by the French Government as an 
official representative in France of the distribution 
of American charity, has forwarded more than 88,000 
cases of relief supplies, valued in excess of $6,000,000, 

456 



WAR RELIEF ORGANIZATIONS 

and has received more than $1,632,000 in cash. It 
is in touch with more than 5,000 relief organizations, 
societies, schools, churches, clubs, and groups of indi- 
viduals located in various parts of the United States, 
Canada, Hawaiian Islands, Cuba, Bermuda, etc., in 
no sense supplanting these organizations but lending 
them its exceptional facilities, free of charge, in order 
that the charitable work going on in this country may 
not suffer from duplication, inefficiency or wasted 
effort. 

The War Relief Clearing House for France and Her 
Allies has its executive offices at No. 40 Wall Street, 
New York City, and its warehouses are located at No. 
124 Charlton Street, New York City. Mr. Clyde H. 
Pratt is executive secretary. The organization gives 
its services and information free to all contributors, 
is kept reliably informed as to what form of relief 
is most needed and where, and disseminates such in- 
formation to affiliated organizations in America. It 
also acts as a purchasing and forwarding agent for 
organizations and individuals wishing to contribute 
funds or supplies, thereby giving contributors the 
benefit of its exceptional prices. It obtains free ship- 
ment, with few exceptions, for contributions from 
New York to the designated destination in Europe. 
It enters contributions of supplies into ports of the 
allied countries, free of customs duties, and is given 
free transportation for supplies over the French and 
Italian railroads. It delivers supplies where they 
are the most needed by the quickest and surest route 
and makes no charge for its services. All contribu- 
tions for relief are delivered intact, without deduc- 
tions for operating expenses. Practically all of the 

457 



AMERICAN WOMEN AND THE WORLD WAR 

organizations doing relief work in France are operat- 
ing through the War Clearing House. 

One of the most notable of the war charities for 
France is the American Ambulance Hospital in Paris, 
which has won world-wide fame. Its headquarters 
are at No. 14 Wall Street, New York City. Since 
it was organized at the beginning of the war the work 
of the institution has steadily increased, and more 
than 1,500 patients are treated every day at its main 
and auxiliary hospitals. The ambulance service has 
grown until more than 250 ambulances are on duty 
in Paris and at the front. The cost of inaugurating 
and maintaining this splendid work is borne entirely 
by the voluntary contributions of Americans who 
have chosen this method of expressing their coun- 
try's gratitude and friendship for the French people. 
During a single year over 5,100 cases of acute surgery 
were treated in the hospitals at Neuilly and at Juilly, 
and in the Field Hospital, and over 135,000 patients 
were transported by the motor ambulances in the 
entrenched Camp of Paris and in the field. These 
figures, although imposing, can by no means be taken 
as a measure of the work accomplished. Large quan- 
tities of dressings, hospital supplies, clothing, etc., 
specially donated for the purpose, have been dis- 
tributed, and in emergency much surgical and med- 
ical relief has been given to the civil population. 
But perhaps not the least achievement of the Ameri- 
can Ambulance has been to bring to almost every 
town and village of France, through the wounded, 
their families, and their friends, a lasting apprecia- 
tion of the profound sjnnpathy of the American peo- 
ple for France and for her heroic soldiers. 

458 



WAR RELIEF ORGANIZATIONS 

The Hospital is a recognized center for severe, 
complicated fractures, for nerve injuries requiring the 
most delicate surgical procedures, and for the dis- 
tressing injuries and disfigurements of the face and 
jaws. The reputation of the Hospital in these par- 
ticular directions has grown steadily, and this reputa- 
tion has brought many distinguished surgeons, as 
visitors, from all countries of the world. 

In all of the wonderful work done by this institu- 
tion, women have had a conspicuous and a vital part. 
Mrs. W. K. Vanderbilt and Mrs. Henry Payne Whit- 
ney are on the Board of Governors of the American 
Hospital in Paris and the American Committee con- 
sists of the following: 

New York, Mrs. Robert Bacon, chairman, Mrs. C. 
B. Alexander, Mrs. Frederick 0. Beach, Mrs. August 
Belmont, Mrs. S. R. Bertron, Mrs. Henry P. Davison, 
Mrs. William Greenough, Mrs. E. H. Harriman, Mrs. 
A. Barton Hepburn, Mrs. Henry W. Munroe, Mrs. H. 
Fairfield Osborn, Mrs. Whitelaw Reid, Mrs. Herbert 
L. Satterlee, Mrs. Charles H. Sherrill, Mrs. Willard 
D. Straight, Mrs. Edward M. Townsend, Mrs. W. K. 
Vanderbilt, Mrs. Whitney Warren, Mrs. Alexander 
S. Webb, Mrs. Henry Payne Whitney ; and Miss Elsie 
Nicoll, chairman Junior Committee; Albany, Mrs. 
Wm. Bayard Van Rensselaer; Boston, Mrs. Edward 
Brandegee, Mrs. Barrett Wendell, Mrs. J. Montgom- 
ery Sears, Mrs. Bayard Thayer, Mrs. Sturgis Loth- 
rop ; Cleveland, Mrs. Myron T. Herrick, Mrs. Parmel 
W. Herrick, Mrs. Dudley P. Allen; Chicago, Mrs. 
Bryan Lathrop, Mrs. Russel Tyson; Detroit, Mrs. 
Charles A. Coolidge; Erie, Pa., Mrs. F. L. Chapin; 
Petersburg, Va., Miss Helen Cameron; Princeton, N. 

459 



AMERICAN WOMEN AND THE WORLD WAR 

J., Mrs. Junius S. Morgan ; Philadelphia, Mrs. George 
Wharton Pepper, Mrs. J. William White; Pittsburg, 
Mrs. William Reed Thompson; Providence, Mrs. F. 
A. Sayles; St. Louis, Mrs. George A. Castleman, Mrs. 
Stanley Stoner ; San Francisco, Mrs. Francis Carolan ; 
Troy, Mrs. Charles S. Fi-ancis; William R. Hereford, 
executive secretary, Hugh S. Bird, financial secre- 
tary. 

It is interesting to note that, of a total of 3,107 
patients received in twelve months, ending August 
31, 1917, there were but 72 deaths, making a death 
rate of 2.31 per cent, or approximately one-half of 
the death rate during the previous year of the hos- 
pital. Several hundred Americans have been in ac- 
tive service as volunteer ambulance drivers. 

The American Committee for Training in Suitable 
Trades the Maimed Soldiers of France, Mrs. Edmund 
L. Baylies, chairman, was formed in February, 1916. 
This is the American branch of the Union des 
Colonies Etrangeres en France en Favour des Vic- 
times de la Guerre. It has established the following 
schools: Grand Palais, Champ Elysees, Paris, where, 
in a building donated by the French Government, 
over three hundred men are being trained; No. 28, 
Quai Debilly, Paris, a large private dwelling house 
given by its owner, where 100 maimed soldiers are 
lodged, fed and trained ; and Maison Blanche, Neuilly 
sur Marne (8 miles from Paris), founded and main- 
tained by the gift of Mr. Edward T. Stotesbury, of 
Philadelphia, amounting to over $75,000, where over 
500 maimed soldiers are being trained. The French 
Committee has found situations for several hundred 
graduates from these American Trade Schools, where 

460 



WAR RELIEF ORGANIZATIONS 

in less than two years more than 2,000 maimed sol- 
diers were trained. All money is disbursed in France 
under the personal direction of a committee of the 
Union des Colonies Etrangeres. 

The French Government asked the cooperation of 
the American Committee in order to establish agri- 
cultural schools for the maimed peasants. The peas- 
ants of France are bearing the heaviest burden of 
this great war — over sixty per cent, of the French 
being drawn from the rural population. In the in- 
vaded districts, notwithstanding the admirable efforts 
of the women to replace the men at the front, farms 
were necessarily neglected. Two extensive farms 
were offered to the American Committee with the 
approval of the French Government. One of these is 
at Juvisy (15 miles from Paris), where $40,000 were 
required to equip the farm to teach the various agri- 
cultural branches, such as the use of agricultural 
machinery, market gardening, horticulture, forestry, 
poultry farming, dairying, etc. Over 300 maimed 
men are being trained at this farm. The other farm 
is at Tryoes (100 miles southeast of Paris), where 
$10,000 were required to provide instructors, imple- 
ments, etc., the authorities having provided every- 
thing else necessary. The American Committee 
assumed responsibility for these two farms which will 
become self-supporting and will be continued after 
the war. The executive committee of the organiza- 
tion consists of Mrs. Charles B. Alexander, Mrs. Og- 
den Mills, Mrs. William Douglas Sloane, Mrs. Corne- 
lius Vanderbilt, Hon. Myron T. Herrick, Hon. J. W. 
Riddle, Mr. Edmund L. Bayliss, and Mr. Moncure 
Robinson. The total amount of the fund to Janu- 

461 



AMERICAN WOMEN AND THE WORLD WAR 

ary, 1918, was $315,530.19. American Headquarters, 
Room 134, Biltmore Hotel, New York City. 

Edith Wharton's war charities in France consist 
of the American Hostels for Refugees, founded in 
November, 1914, with Mrs. Wharton as President, 
and the Children of Flanders Rescue Committee 
founded by Mrs. Wharton in April, 1915, at the re- 
quest of the Belgium Government. The American 
Hospitals for Refugees give permanent care to about 
3,500 refugees, chiefly French women, children, and 
sick and infirm people who cannot earn a living. 
Most of the refugees were in extreme poverty, living 
huddled together in miserable lodgings. Mrs. Whar- 
ton started a fund which maintains three large lodg- 
ing houses, two restaurants, serving over 600 meals a 
day, an employment agency, a large workroom for 
women, a day nursery, a clothing depot, a coal depot, 
a grocery depot, a free clinic, a dispensary, district 
visitors, two hospitals (100 beds) at Groslay, near 
Paris, one resthouse for 30 people in Paris, and one 
of 30 beds for anemic and tubercular children at 
Arromanchesm, in Normandy. In less than three 
years after it was established the hostels had provided 
for more than 14,000 refugees, of whom 12,000 needed 
and received medical aid ; found employment for 
more than 6,000 men and women; distributed more 
than 100,000 garments; and served at a nominal cost 
more than 300,000 meals. 

The Children of Flanders Rescue Committee boards, 
lodges, clothes, and cares for over 700 children from 
the bombarded towns of Western Flanders, about 200 
infirm old men and women, with the Flemish sisters 
who care for them. Some of the children were in 

462 



WAR RELIEF ORGANIZATIONS 

orphanages; others were picked up in ruined villages 
or abandoned farms. One baby of twenty months 
had been living, for five days, alone and without food 
in a bam ; two others, a little older, were taken from 
the arms of their dead father, killed by a shell while 
he was escaping with them. After they had been in 
Paris for a little while, twelve of the older children 
were told, as a lesson, to draw a house from memory. 
Ten out of the twelve drew a house in flames. These 
children were soon happy and contented and were 
taught by the Belgian nuns. 

These Flemish committees were established in six 
large houses as follows: Le Chateau Vieux, rue 
Saint-Denis, St. Ouen ; Ville Bethanie, Montsoult 
(Seine-et-Oise) ; Villa Saillet and Villa les Bergeries, 
Arromanches (Calvados) ; Ecole Brazillier; Sevres, 
67, rue De la Sante, Paris. There are two lace 
schools, one at Sevres and one at St. Ouen, where lace 
making is taught to the older girls according to the 
methods of the celebrated Ecole Normale of Bruges. 
With utmost economy it costs $9,250 a month to 
maintain the hostels and hospitals, and $1,800 a month 
for the children of Flanders, making a total of $11,- 
050. Mrs. Wharton's fellow countrymen in Paris 
helped her generously with their money, and the 
French Government expressed its sense of the value 
of her work by decorating her with the Cross of the 
Legion of Honor — a distinction rarely given to 
women. But much of her help came from her own 
country. Mrs. Cadwalader Jones, is chairman of the 
New York Committee, which consists of Mrs. Henry 
W. Munroe, treasurer ; Miss Pauline Riggs, secretary ; 
Miss Janetta Alexander, Mrs. Gordon Knox Bell, Mrs. 

463 



AMERICAN WOMEN AND THE WORLD WAR 

Cortlandt Field Bishop, Mrs. William Adams Delano, 
Mrs. J. Lloyd Derby, Mrs. Richard Derby, Mrs. 
Arthur JMurray Dodge, Mrs. McDougall Hawkes, Mrs. 
William Bayard Cutting, Mrs. William Pierson Ham- 
ilton, Mrs. Adrian Iselin, Mrs. Henry James, IMiss 
Luisita Leland, Mr. Clement March, ]\Tr. Walter 
Maynard, Mrs. Walter Maynard, Mrs. John James 
Kane, Mr. Philip J. Roosevelt, Llrs. Charles Scribner, 
Mr. George Palen Snow, Miss Robinson Smith, Mrs. 
Willard Straight, Mrs. George Whitney, Mrs. Whit- 
ridge, and Mrs. Linsley R. Williams. There are also 
committees in Boston and in Montclair, New Jersey. 
American Committee, 21 East 11th St., New York City. 
Le Paquet du Soldat has American headquarters at 
56 Reade St., New York City. Its executive com- 
mittee consists of: president, Madame Eugene 
Maloubier; vice president, Madame Emmanuel Jones- 
soff; recording secretary, Miss Lucy F. Mohan; cor- 
responding secretary, Miss Helen Dunn; French sec- 
retary, Mile. Cecile Debouy; purchasing agent. Miss 
Byrd W. Hamblen. Miss Frances Clement is chair- 
man of the Committee of Le Paquet de I'Orphelin, 
and associated with her are Mile. Marie Louise Raoux 
and Miss Elizabeth Goldsmith. The personnel of 
other committees is as follows: Committee of Le 
Paquet de VEdpital, Mile. Violette E. Scharff 
chairman; associated with Mle. Scharff are Mile. 
Julie E. Cappelle and Mile. Louise Guebin; chair- 
man of the Shipping Committee is Miss Olive 
Lewis, and associated with her are Madame Thial- 
lier and Mr. Jean Bazerque; members of the 
Finance Committee are Mr. Andrew Burne, Miss 
Jessie Colvin and Miss Edith Putnam. The organi- 

464 



WAR RELIEF ORGANIZATIONS 

zation is particularly interested during the war in 
finding godmothers and godfathers for the orphaned 
children of France, and each month a substantial 
draft goes to the branch organization in Montbeliard. 
After the war the work will be devoted to caring for 
the orphans. The Committee is providing packages 
for American soldiers, and half of the fund realized 
from the booth at the Allied Bazaar of November, 
1917, was used for tobacco kits for American soldiers 
in France. 



CHAPTER XXXIV 

RELIEF FOR FRANCE 

American Fund for French Wounded — Funds for 
Heroes of France and her Allies — French Heroes Fund 
— Blind Relief Fund — Ecole des Beaux Arts — Union 
des Arts — Comite Franco- Americain — American Girls 
Aid — Fatherless Children of France — American Dis- 
tributing Service — War Babies' Cradle — Children's 
Fund for Kiddies' Kits — Relief for Liberated Villages 
of France. 

One of the most important of the organizations in 
America which is devoted to French relief is the 
American Fund for French Wounded, which was 
established in November, 1914, in London, under the 
name of the French Wounded Emergency Fund. 
The present organization was formed in December, 
1915, and the first work of relief was in Normandy 
and Brittany. There are more than 500 branch com- 
mittees, and up to the fall of 1917 more than 15,- 
000,000 separate articles had been shipped abroad, 
and a sum approximating $1,000,000 had been ex- 
pended. The organization exists in practically every 
state in the Union, the principal branches being the 
New England branch in Boston, and those in New 
York, Chicago, San Francisco and Baltimore. Each 
branch has more than 25 committees working un- 
der it. The Paris depot has 14 departments dis- 

466 



WAR RELIEF ORGANIZATIONS 

tributing its supplies. The headquarters are at 122 
Madison Avenue, New York City. Mrs. Ethelbert 
Nevin is chairman, Mrs. Lewis B. Stillwell is chair- 
man of the executive committee, ^Mrs. Benjamin 
Girault Lathrop is president, Miss Ann Morgan, treas- 
urer, Charles Butler, vice president, and Miss Eliza- 
beth Scarborough, secretary, Miss Elizabeth Perkins, 
chairman of publicity. 

The original work of the American Fund for French 
Wounded was confined to sending supplies to the emer- 
gency hospitals in France, which at the beginning of 
the war were inadequately furnished. After three 
years the French have their methods for caring for 
the wounded well organized, but each month longer 
that the war lasts the demand for hospital supplies 
grows greater. With nine hundred thousand hospital 
beds in France continually in use, when only the 
French army was being considered, the number now 
is greatly augmented and many a French hospital will 
care for an American soldier. 

The Civilian Committee of the American Fund for 
French Wounded is recognized by the French Govern- 
ment and cooperates with the American Red Cross 
as by agreement signed by Major Murphy in Paris 
and Mr. H. P. Davison in Washington, and members of 
the Executive Committee of the American Fund, 
whereby the Red Cross recognize the American Fund 
as an independent organization working in partner- 
ship with the Red Cross, and recognizing Mrs. Dike as 
Chairman of the Civilian Committee operating in the 
Aisne and the Somme. 

The object of the Civilian Committee of the Ameri- 
can Fund is to re-establish the destroyed homes of the 

467 



AMERICAN WOMEN AND THE WORLD WAR 

inhabitants of the devastated region, and to reinstate 
the French citizen on an independent and self-sup- 
porting basis. 

The first unit formed by the American Fund for 
French Wounded for civilian work were placed by 
General Petain at Blerancourt in the Aisne, in July, 
1917. Ten American women settled amongst the ruins 
of this town and organized a community center which 
included the supervision of twenty-five villages. 

In August, Smith College with sixteen workers affili- 
ated themselves with the American Fund for French 
Wounded, and through the Chairman of the Civilian 
Committee were placed at Grecourt with ten villages 
to supervise. 

The first unit established at Blerancourt accom- 
plished through the cooperation of the French army 
the task of plowing and seeding four thousand acres 
of land and planting three thousand fruit bearing 
trees. They also opened a dairy consisting of seven- 
teen cows which was put on a self-supporting basis, 
and the children and invalids were able to obtain fresh 
milk for the first time in three years. 

In three months the unit completed the restoration 
of forty-seven houses, so that they were habitable 
homes for those who since the German invasion had 
lived in cellars, or shell torn ruins. 

The unit had bought and judiciously distributed 
chickens and rabbits, and provided laborers with the 
implements of their trade, so that they very soon be- 
came wage-earners again. 

With the generosity of the Red Cross the Civilian 
Committee were enabled to buy stoves for a number 
of the residents. The unit organized classes in car- 

468 



WAR RELIEF ORGANIZATIONS 

pentry for the boys and sewing and housekeeping for 
the girls under the training of a teacher of the Ecole 
Managers who has had long experience in teaching 
children. 

Another organization known for the remarkable 
work it has done is the American Fund for the Heroes 
of France and Her Allies, of which Mrs. William Astor 
Chanler is President. The French Heroes ' Fund was 
organized for the purpose of aiding the wounded and 
mutilated soldiers, their wives, daughters, and sisters, 
and the children of invaded France. Up to the fall 
of 1917 a total of $197,941.93 had been raised by 
this organization. Workshops were established where 
trade and occupations are taught, with the object of 
providing employment and sustenance and of putting 
the destitute and disabled masses in France on a 
permanent, self-supporting basis, and no work has 
been more constructive nor had a more far-reaching' 
influence. This organization purchased the chateau 
in which was born the Marquis de Lafaj^ette, and this 
provides an impressive sentimental interest for Amer- 
icans, aside from the practical objects to be attained. 

Perhaps the most vitally interesting phase of the 
work of the French Heroes Fund is its activity in 
educating boy orphans between the ages of 12 and 
18 years. The plan involves sending these boys to 
this country to engage in occupations here, between 
their 18th and 21st years, at the expiration of which 
time they will return to France to take to that coun- 
try the results of their experience in the United 
States. It is believed that this will be of permanent 
advantage in establishing a better and a more inti- 
mate understanding betw.een the people of the two 

469 



AMERICAN WOMEN AND THE WORLD WAR 

countries. France will, by this method, give to 
America the enthusiasm and spirit of the French 
youth, and will, in return, get the experience and 
spirit of business enterprise that characterizes our 
own country. It is planned within a few years to 
have several thousand of these French orphans ac- 
tively engaged in learning various occupations in 
America. The French Heroes Fund will also main- 
tain a sanitarium near the Chateau de Chavaniac 
Lafayette for delicate children. This chateau is 
eventually to be maintained as a museum along the 
lines followed in the preservation of Washington's 
birthplace at Mount Vernon. 

A number of prominent American women have 
been actively interested in the American, British, 
French, Belgian Permanent Blind Relief Fund, which 
has headquarters at 590 Fifth Avenue, New York 
City. Mrs. George A. Kessler, Mrs. R. Valentine 
Webster, and Mrs. Harry Payne Whitney are honor- 
ary secretaries, and Miss Nellie Turner is assistant 
honorary secretary. The Fund was organized in 
England and France in November, 1915, and in this 
country in March, 1916. The American section is 
under the patronage of President Wilson ; The British 
and the Belgian sections, of the King and Queen of 
England, and the King and Queen of Belgium re- 
spectively; while the President of the French Re- 
public heads the French section. The primary ob- 
ject of the organization is the creation of a fund for 
the permanent care of the blinded soldiers of America, 
Great Britain, France and Belgium. There are com- 
mittees in Boston, Chicago, Cincinnati, Cleveland, In- 
dianapolis, Memphis, Milwaukee, Philadelphia, Pitts- 

470 



WAR RELIEF ORGANIZATIONS 

burgh and Washington, D. C. More than $500,000 
has been collected by the end of 1917 and all of this 
has been spent for actual relief, the expenses having 
been otherwise met. $200,000 has been sent to France 
and England, partly for immediate relief and partly 
for investment in War Loan Bonds as foundation 
for a permanent fund, for which purpose $300,000 
has been invested. The organization pledged itself 
to raise approximately $400,000 in 10 years, to be sent 
to France in installments of 200,000 francs yearly, 
and this is but a part of the sum required for the 
blinded Americans, French, British and Belgians. 
Mr. George A. Kessler, chairman of the executive 
committee, placed his handsome Paris residence at 
the disposal of the French committee, to be utilized 
for the temporary training of the blind; and work- 
shops have been established in Paris. The work of 
this organization is on a very solid basis, and does 
not aim at sporadic or temporary relief, but for the 
maintenance and support of the blinded soldiers in 
the hard and difficult years that must follow the war. 
A number of the American students of the Ecole 
des Beaux Arts founded, in December, 1917, in Paris, 
what is known as the American Students' Committee 
of the Ecole des Beaux Arts, in appreciation of the 
debt of gratitude which the students owe to the 
French nation and particularly to the school. The 
Committee has branches in Chicago, Boston, San 
Francisco, Washington, and Philadelphia, with an 
active chairman in charge of each. There are be- 
tween 300 and 350 regular contributors who gave, in 
less than two years more than $60,000. The work 
this committee is doing for women in France through 

471 



AMERICAN WOMEN AND THE WORLD WAR 

an ouvroir, organized to provide work for mothers, 
wives and sisters in need, is extremely interesting. 
The school furnishes a large room in which the work 
is carried on. Here are made various articles that 
are needed by men at the front, and scarfs, socks, 
sweaters, shirts, underclothing, mittens, slippers, 
pajamas, etc., for the wounded. Material is bought 
by the committee or received through donations. 
The women are paid a fixed sum for every article 
turned out, a sum that is larger than that paid by 
most ouvroirs connected with the charitable organiza- 
tions in Paris. The ouvroir turns out to the soldiers 
every month articles to the value of 1,500 francs, for 
which the cost is about 100 francs. In other words, 
the ouvroir, besides providing work for the women 
members of the families of the students, permits a sav- 
ing of approximately 1,400 francs a month on articles 
of special design of great utility that cannot be pur- 
chased elsewhere. On one occasion, when the gas at- 
tacks were renewed, many men were without masks. 
The ouvroir immediately set to work and about 300 
masks were promptly sent off to the front. Besides 
caring for these needs the ouvroir executes many or- 
ders for other charitable organizations in Paris, in- 
cluding the American Relief Clearing House. In 
this way funds are secured for purchasing material. 
The Union Des Arts was founded by Rachel Boyer, 
of the Comedie Frangaise, several years before the 
war, for the purpose of giving help to the needy 
actors and actresses, literary men, painters, sculptors, 
musicians and lyric artists. At the outbreak of the 
war the organization turned its attention to war re- 
lief, establishing soup kitchens and workrooms in 

472 



WAR RELIEF ORGA]?:riZATIONS 

Paris. As the war continued, it became more and 
more difficult to obtain contributions in France, and 
through the Marquis de Polignac, who is represent- 
ing French art for the French Government in Amer- 
ica, a request was made to organize a committee here. 
This was undertaken by Mr. P. C. C artier and Miss 
Martha Maynard, and the organization was ready for 
actual work the 1st of January, 1917. Through sub- 
scriptions and various entertainments, and the sale 
of charms, bracelets, etc., the society has sent to 
Madame Rachel Boyer about 73,889 francs. Rachel 
Boyer is president of the Paris organization. The 
officers for the American branch are : honorary presi- 
dent, Gaston Liebert; president, Edmund L. Baylies; 
vice presidents, Winthrop Ames, Frederick R. 
Coudert, Joseph R. Freedlander, McDougall Haukes, 
Mrs. Philip Lydig, Lloyd Warren; bankers, J. P. 
Morgan & Company; honorary secretary, Mrs. J. 
West Roosevelt; secretaries, Miss Martha Maynard, 
P. C. Cartier. 

The work of the Comite Franco-Americain was 
started by Mr. Frederic R. Coudert of New York in 
August, 1914, to rescue a hundred little waifs from 
the invaded region in the north of France. The 
children were brought to Paris and placed in the 
care of Mr. August P. Jaccaci, the president of the 
organization, who, with the assistance of the other 
members of the French Committee, Mrs. Cooper 
Hewitt the honorary president, Mrs. Robert Woods 
Bliss, vice president, Mr. Arthur Hugh Frazier, treas- 
urer, and the Countess Pierre de Viel-Castel and Mrs. 
William H. Hill, established colonies through France 
to care for the children, who came in continually in- 

473 



AMERICAN WOMEN AND THE WORLD WAR 

creasing numbers as the war continued. There are 
over twenty-five colonies, caring for from 1,200 to 
1,500 children. There is also a sanatorium. New 
children are constantly being received from the dev- 
astated regions and the need is steadily growing. 

The various colonies are supported, some by mem- 
bers of the Committee, the others by donations and 
by the "marraine^^ system, whereby individuals in 
America '^ adopt" and support a definite child, con- 
cerning whom they get reports, and with whom they 
may establish direct communication. The clothing is 
made entirely in the United States and shipped to 
France, and much of the food is sent from the United 
States. 

The American office of the Committee is at 24 East 
63d Street, and among the members of the Executive 
Committee in the United States are; Miss Rosina S. 
Hoyt; Miss Martha L. Draper, chairman of Adop- 
tions Committee; Mrs. Joseph Lindon Smith, field 
secretary; and Mrs. Charles P. Rowland, secretary 
and chairman of Supply Committee. 

The American Girls' Aid, 293 Fifth Ave., New 
York City, was one of the first organizations 
to take up war relief work for France, and 
was formed for the collection of clothing for the 
victims of the European War in France, the clothing 
being distributed through the War Relief Clearing 
House for France and Her Allies. The Organization 
has many branches in different parts of the United 
States, and in addition to supplying clothing is also 
contributing hospital supplies, approximately 9,000 
cases having been sent to Europe by the summer of 
1917. The Committee has pledged the support of 

474 



WAR RELIEF ORGANIZATIONS 

250 orphans in France. In the fall of 1917 it was 
announced that arrangements had been completed for 
the establishment of a hospital unit in France of 
about 100 beds, for French and American soldiers. 
This is supported by subscriptions secured by Dr. L. 
M. Moody, the surgeon in charge and by the Girls' 
Aid. Ten nurses are on the staff, and these are paid 
by the organization. Dr. Moody and the two surgeons 
assisting him serve without pay. Friends of the 
American Girls' Aid donated three ambulances and 
one automobile, and drivers immediately volunteered 
their services without pay. The running expenses 
of the hospital are about $5,000 a month. The 
American Girls' Aid is working under the patronage 
of the American Chamber of Commerce, Paris, 
France, and the work of the Committee has the ap- 
proval and sympathy of the Belgian Relief Commit- 
tee. The Executive Comaaittee is composed of Miss 
Gladys Hollingsworth, chairman, Mrs. Gaston Pinto, 
Miss Elizabeth Hollingsworth and A. Seton Post, Jr. 

The appeal of the committee known as The Father- 
less Children of France is almost electric. The 
society was organized in October, 1915. Its aim 
is to maintain the orphaned French children in 
their own homes, to be brought up by their mothers 
and fitted for the work of reconstructing the French 
nation, which will develop upon them. The future 
of France may be said to depend on these children 
and upon the opportunity given them to grow to ma- 
turity, healthy and strong, and able to assume these 
great burdens. 

The policy of the organization is to establish a 
personal relationship between the American donor 

475 



AMERICAN WOMEN AND THE WORLD WAR 

and his little French protege by means of letters 
which will bind the two countries in ties of under- 
standing and sympathy for the future. Money is col- 
lected in this country by voluntary contributions 
through voluntary committees, and sent to Paris 
where it is distributed by Government post-office 
money order, bearing the name of the individual 
American subscriber as well as the name and address 
of the French child. In return the child benefited, 
writes a letter to his American friend and usually 
sends a photograph. These little letters are charm- 
ing and pathetic in the extreme and are not to be for- 
gotten. 

It is the inviolable rule of the Fatherless Children 
that every cent subscribed for a child shall go to that 
child without the deduction of a postage stamp, and 
all overhead expenses here and in Paris are met by a 
separate fund donated for the purpose. 

The society is no longer a branch of the American 
Society for the Relief of French War Orphans. That 
society recently became merged with the Red Cross 
and has gone out of existence, leaving the Fatherless 
Children of France the only organization for the re- 
lief of French war orphans on this particular plan 
on a large scale in this country. 

The society has 130 committees operating in as 
many different communities. It has raised over 
$1,500,000 and of that $1,000,000 since the first of the 
year. It has cared for 50,000 orphans. 

There are 150,000 more children registered on the 
lists and in desperate need of help. Advices from 
Paris state that the wintei's bring the most ex- 
treme privation and suffering and that the chil- 

476 



WAR RELIEF ORGANIZATIONS 

dren are dying by hundreds of tuberculosis because 
of exposure and malnutrition. Headquarters 563 
Park Ave., New York City. 

The American Distributing Service was the first 
American organization for hospital aid in France, 
having been formed in August, 1914. It was started 
by Mrs. Robert W. Bliss, for the instant relief of the 
most obvious needs of the hospital staff. At the end 
of the first year the report showed that over 44,000 
articles had been sent out. The list of hospitals was 
then 700 and in less than a year the list of articles 
sent out each month had grown to 240,000 and the 
number of hospitals to 1,400. Within a few more 
months the list of articles sent out had increased to 
940,000 and the hospitals supplied were 2,553 in num- 
ber. The American Distributing Service is under 
the authority of the Minister of War and he has is- 
sued instructions that each of these 2,553 hospitals 
shall send in a list of supplies most needed. The 
work has increased so enormously that although the 
supplies are delivered by motors to the hospitals 
nearest Paris, railroad service is being used more and 
more on account of the large amounts sent out. The 
system of the service is so perfect that the supplies 
are shipped almost as soon as received. Besides dis- 
tributing supplies, relief was given during the first 
year by using the headquarters for refugees, and now 
rooms are given over to homeless women who are em- 
ployed in making the various garments needed for 
the distributing service. Mrs. Arthur M. Dodge has 
been prominently identified with this work from the 
beginning. 

Especially appealing is the work being done by the 

477 



AMERICAN WOMEN AND THE WORLD WAR 

War Babies' Cradle of which Mrs. Frances A. Clarke 
is honorary president, and Mrs. Jules S. Bache, hon- 
orary treasurer. The purpose of the War Babies' 
Cradle is to care for the mothers and children in dis- 
tress in Northern France and Belgium, who lack food, 
clothing, fuel and medical attention. The help 
afforded is done through an agency at Calais under 
the superintendence of Comptesse Marie du Hemp- 
tinne, a Belgian lady who visits the families in the 
stricken districts and so far as possible supplies their 
needs. Necessities only are purchased with the con- 
tributions. The Cradle cares for the mothers for ten 
days and then exerts its efforts largely for the assist- 
ance of the new-born children, whose plight under 
the terrifying and dreadful conditions of their birth 
is most deplorable. The Committee works in con- 
junction with the French, Belgian and British Mili- 
tary Charities. Mrs. Jules S. Bache, through her in- 
dividual efforts, has raised more than $10,000 for 
these children ; and a newly-formed committee for the 
War Babies' Cradle consists of Mrs. Ogden Mills, 
Mrs. Edmund C. Baylies, Mrs. Herman Oelrich, Mrs. 
Orme Wilson, Mrs. Charles Ditson, Lady Colebrook, 
Mrs. Philip Lydig, and Mrs. Lawrence Gillespie. 

The Children's Fund for Kiddies' Kits was started 
in October, 1915, as hundreds of refugee children 
were coming into Paris and clothing was difficult or 
impossible to get. It was intended that the appeal 
should be made to the children of this country to 
supply the needs of French and Belgian children. 
Money sent in for kits has amounted to more than 
$6,000, which has been used exclusively for needy 
children. 

478 



WAR RELIEF ORGANIZATIONS 

A committee known as Relief for the Liberated Vil- 
lages of France has as its representative in this coun- 
try Miss Marie Louise Fontaine, and it has head- 
quarters in New York and in Washington. It has 
done very effective work in sending clothing, table 
linen and other supplies to the inhabitants of the 
reclaimed villages left by the retreating Germans. 
This charity was organized in France and its honor- 
ary president is Madame La Comtesse d 'Haussonville 
and its active president is Madame Adolphe Moreau. 
An interesting phase of the work of this organization 
in France is the sending of squads of women among 
the hundreds of groups of villages whose homes have 
been destroyed. These women, many of them of 
wealthy families, share the life of the peasants of the 
villages. Needs of the organization to which this 
country can contribute are described as follows: 
*'We want all kinds of clothes, shoes and linen. We 
want tools and kitchen utensils. We want threads, 
cottons, wools and embroidery silk for the refugees 
earning their livelihood with their needles." 



CHAPTER XXXV 

RELIEF FOR FRANCE 

American Ice Flotilla Committee raised more than 
$100,000 in 1917— American Field Service in France— 
Appui aux Artistes — Mrs. Stuyvesant raises more than 
$20,000 through "One Dollar Fimd"— Duryea Re- 
lief — Franco-American Committee — American Branch 
French Actors' Fund — French Bureau — French Tuber- 
culosis War Victims' Fund — Hospital Under Three 
Flags — Lafayette Fund — Le Bien-Etre du Blesse — ; 
Secours de Guerre — Seeours National. 

No MORE beautiful charity has emanated from 
America than that known as the American Ice Flo- 
tilla Committee, of which Miss Gertrude Robinson 
Smith is chairman and Miss Anne Morgan, treasurer. 
The first work of this committee was in 1916, when 
$70,000 was raised for supplying and equipping surgi- 
cal automobile ambulances on the "Western Front. 
In 1917 more than $100,000 was raised for Ice Flo- 
tillas — automobiles and ice-making machines for the 
purpose of supplying the field hospitals with the daily 
supply of ice for the wounded. The work has not 
only had the indorsement of the Service de Sante and 
of the leading officials of the French Government, but 
has been indorsed by representative surgeons of the 
United States, who see in the adequate supply of ice 
the opportunity for the saving of many lives and the 

480 



WAR RELIEF ORGANIZATIONS 

amelioration of the sufferings of soldiers wounded in 
battle, or victims of fevers and other diseases inci- 
dental to service at the front. Committees have been 
formed in various cities and the Ice Flotillas are dis- 
tinguished at the front by the name of the city whose 
contribution made the individual unit possible. 

The American Field Service in France was formed 
to supply ambulances to the French Army, and sec- 
tions of ambulances driven by American volunteers 
have figured notably on the Yser, the Aisne, the 
Somme, in Champagne, Argonne, at Verdun, the 
Woevre, in Lorraine and in reconquered Alsace, and 
the Field Service has two ambulances with the French 
-Armies in the Balkans. Eighteen of these sections 
had been formed by the summer of 1917 and seven 
more were in process of formation. 

After the entrance of the United States into the 
war the Field Service formed a new Transport 
Branch, for the purpose of providing automobile 
sections to be used for the transport of munitions at 
the front. Within a few months after this country 
had entered the war four sections of forty-five men 
each had gone to the front and others were rapidly 
being formed. The American Field Service aims to 
obtain 10,000 young men, and the various sections 
they will constitute will be organized on the same 
basis as ambulance sections. A training camp for 
men entering the transport work was organized at 
the Front by the French Army, and a school for 
officers of the American Field Service was also or- 
ganized. It is estimated that the expenses of the 
transport sections amount to $10,000 a year per sec- 
tion. The personnel of the sections are wholly Amer- 

481 



AMERICAN WOMEN AND THE WORLD WAR 

ican. At an annual expenditure of about $720,000 
the American Field Service aims to offer to the 
French Army the whole personnel for a munition 
transport reserve. When the American Field Serv- 
ice had been in Paris little more than two years it had 
received ninety-nine citations from the French Army. 
It is difficult to estimate the contributions to the 
Fund, which have been received from all parts of the 
United States, together with the donors of am- 
bulances, but the sum is a very large one. In all, 
about 1,000 ambulances have been donated by individ- 
uals, university graduates and organizations. In the 
first two years of its existence the American Field 
Service cared for more than 500,000 wounded and 
many of the volunteers who have served with it have 
been university men. A separate activity of the Field 
Service is moving pictures taken of the soldiers 
abroad, which are shown in America to raise money 
to maintain the field ambulance service. The activi- 
ties of this splendid committee are directed from 432 
Fourth Avenue, New York City. 

The Appui aux Artistes is organized to provide 
meals for workers in the arts and their families de- 
prived of employment by the war. Since its forma- 
tion in August, 1914, it has served more than 500,000 
meals. For the benefit of the artists and their fam- 
ilies five canteens are maintained and a clothing sta- 
tion is also provided which has distributed more than 
6,000 articles of clothing. A villa loaned for the 
purpose has also been maintained for artists whose 
health necessitated a stay in the country. The or- 
ganization is the only one doing work of this kind in 
Paris, and the demands upon it have been steadily in- 

482 



WAR RELIEF ORGANIZATIONS 

creased with the continued duration of the war. The 
executive committee for America has headquarters in 
the Fine Arts Building, 215 West 57th Street, New 
York City. Mrs. Edward Rowland is chairman of 
the organization committee, Ernest Peixotto is secre- 
tary and Miss Malvina Hoffman is treasurer. 

Mrs. Rutherford Stuyvesant has interested herself 
in raising in America a '^ One-Dollar Fund" which 
had reached by the end of 1917 more than $20,000. 
Mrs. Stuyvesant is assisting the French organization 
known as the Charite Maternelle de Paris, though 
she has not organized an American committee. The 
French organization of this Society is one of the old- 
est institutions in France, having been founded in 
1784 to help the infants of poor women in the city 
of Paris. Its first president was Queen Marie An- 
toinette. The needs created by the strain of war in- 
creased daily. The objects of the Society are; the 
adoption of children of the poor at birth and during 
the first year of their infancy, together with direct 
supervision of their care in the homes of the poor. 

Mrs. Nina Larrey Duryea organized at Dinard, 
France, in 1914 the Duryea War Relief. This work 
was begun upon the arrival of the first refugees, and 
since that time more than 70,000 persons have been 
assisted. The committee made its appeal for both 
money and clothing and other supplies, which are 
sent to the stricken and destitute in the villages be- 
hind the firing line. Up to the summer of 1917 ap- 
proximately $70,000 had been collected in the United 
States, together with clothing and supplies valued at 
$100,000. Officers of the Association are Mrs. Nina 
Larrey Duryea, president; Mrs. Seth Barton French, 

483 



AMERICAN WOMEN AND THE WORLD WAR 

vice president; Mrs. J. Borden Harriman, vice presi- 
dent; Mrs. Charles H. Ditson, secretary; Mr. Charles 
Elliot Warren, treasurer ; Mrs. Frances Seaver, assist- 
ant treasurer ; David Willard, chairman of the execu- 
tive committee. Headquarters, 259 Fifth Ave., New 
York City. 

The Franco-American Committee for the Protec- 
tion of the Children of the Frontier was organized to 
aid the destitute children of France, Belgium, and 
the reconquered villages of France. Mrs. Peter 
Cooper Hewitt is honorary president; August F. 
Jaccaci, president and secretary; Mrs. Robert W. 
Bliss, vice president, and Frederick R. Coudert, 
treasurer. A number of homes and sanitariums have 
been established, and money and supplies of cloth- 
ing have been sent to the destitute children. The 
work of the Committee has been carried on at small 
cost and every dollar contributed has gone to the 
support of helpless children. 

The American Branch of the French Actors' Fund 
has for its president Mrs. James H. Kidder. The 
closing of many theaters in Paris, incident to the war, 
left many lesser employees of the playhouses in a de- 
plorable condition. Many of the men went to the 
front leaving destitute wives and children behind 
them. Many actors and actresses likewise were sadly 
in need of assistance, and the French Actors* Fund 
was formed to do this work. The public who en- 
joyed the theater in France and who are lovers of the 
drama, together with the theatrical profession, were 
asked to aid their fellow-craftsmen of the French 
theater. The funds collected are distributed through 
the Association des Directeurs de Theatre de Paris. 

484 



WAR RELIEF ORGANIZATIONS 

Madam Charles Le Veerier is president and Mrs. 
Daniel Gregory Mason, manager of the French Bu- 
reau, which has for its object the sale of toys and nov- 
elties made in France in seven workrooms maintained 
by wounded and maimed soldiers. The New York 
advisory board consists of Mrs. William Adams De- 
lano, Mrs. William Astor Chanler, Mrs. William 
Greenough, Mrs. Victor Morawetz, Mrs. Edith Par- 
sons Morgan, Miss Gertrude Watson, and Mrs. Mau- 
rice Kozminski. The toys and novelties, it is be- 
lieved, will ultimately replace upon the American 
market the toys of German manufacture sold here 
-prior to the war, thus creating a permanent in- 
dustry for a large part of the French people incapaci- 
tated for other work. The proceeds from the sales 
go to aid both the makers of the toys and the desti- 
tute women and children of France. At the shop in 
New York in which these articles are sold something 
more than $27,000 was received in 1917. 

The French Tuberculosis War Victims' Fund is 
working in connection with the French Ministry of 
War and was founded in Paris in October, 1916, with 
the Honorable W. G. Sharp, American ambassador to 
France as an honorary president, together with many 
well-known French and American men and women. 
A very broad appeal was made for the purpose of 
saving France from the ravages of tuberculosis. 
Twenty-five patients are received at a time at a re- 
ceiving hospital at Auteuil, who are later sent to the 
sanatorium maintained by the fund in Switzerland. 
Arrangements for the care of a much larger number of 
patients are under way. The tuberculosis soldiers 
are sent to the Chateau de la Fontaine at Yerres and 

485 



AMERICAN WOMEN AND THE WORLD WAR 

other sanatoria. Discharged soldiers are sent to Mar- 
dor, women and children to Saussy, and boys to 
La Xhaumette, where a school of agriculture is 
maintained. The medical work is done chiefly by 
American physicians who are specialists in tubercu- 
losis. 

Since the founding of the Hospital Under Three 
Flags in the spring of 1915 at Ris-Orangis, near Paris, 
more than 1,020 cases have been treated, and notwith- 
standing the severity of the cases there were only 21 
deaths, a mortality rate of about two per cent. This 
splendid institution was founded by Lady Johnstone, 
formerly Miss Antoinette Pinchot of New York, the 
wife of Sir Allan Johnstone, late British ambassador 
at The Hague, and by Mr. Harold Reckitt, an English 
manufacturer. The American headquarters are at 
360 Madison Avenue, New York City, Mrs. Arthur 
Woods is secretary and Mrs. H. R. Beckwith, execu- 
tive secretary. 

Gratitude for the assistance of France to the Amer- 
ican Colonists in revolutionary days resulted in the 
formation of the Lafayette Fund in December, 1914. 
The idea of the organization was conceived by Mrs. 
William Astor Chanler and Miss Emily Sloane, now 
Baronne de La Grange. The purpose of the La- 
fayette Fund is to send comfort kits to ameliorate 
the hardships of the French soldiers in the trenches, 
and since its organization more than 100,000 kits, 
valued at $2.00 each, have been sent. Up to June, 
1917, more than $212,000 has been raised for this pur- 
pose. Postal cards addressed to the contributors 
were inclosed with each kit enabling the soldier who 
receives the kit to communicate his appreciation to 

486 



WAR RELIEF ORGANIZATIONS 

the donor. The executive committee of the fund 
guaranteed all expenses of administration, so that 
the whole of each contribution goes for the purpose 
for which it is intended. Headquarters of the Fund 
are at the Vanderbilt Hotel, New York City, and 
Francis Roache is secretary and treasurer. The ex- 
ecutive committee includes Mrs. Edmund L. Baylies, 
Mrs. William Astor Chanler, Mrs. John Jay Chap- 
man, Mrs. William K. Dick, Mrs. James B. Duke, 
Mrs. Newbold Le Roy Edgar, Mrs. Archer M. Hunt- 
intgon, Mrs. P. Cooper Hewitt, Baronne de La Grange, 
JVIrs. Philip M. Lydig, Miss Janet Scudder, Mrs. Lee 
Thomas, Miss Jane B. Wallach, Mrs. M. Orme Wil- 
son, and Mrs. Henry Rogers Winthrop. 

Le Bien-Etre du Blesse was founded in May, 1916, 
at the request of the French Government. Its pur- 
pose is to provide the wounded in the hospitals in the 
war zones, cut off from relatives and friends, with 
food and delicacies necessary to their more speedy 
recovery. The lives of thousands of men have been 
saved by providing them with food from the Le Bien- 
Etre kitchens, which the hospitals themselves could 
not supply. The American Committee of which Mrs. 
Gertrude Atherton is president, seeks to maintain, 
as a minimum, contributions of $5,000 a month. Five 
dollars per soldier is estimated as the entire cost of 
giving the wounded what is required during his stay in 
the war zone hospital. Thousands of tons of these sup- 
plies have been shipped to France. Monthly ship- 
ments have been contributed by Mrs. Ives Goddard of 
Providence, Rhode Island, and Mrs. Hamilton Fish 
Webster of Newport, and the Boston committee con- 
tributed about $2,000. Approximately 450,000 francs 

487 



AMERICAN WOMEN AND THE WORLD WAR 

in money and food stuffs have been sent to France for 
the kitchens. 

Mrs. John A. Logan, Jr., is chairman for America 
of the Secours de Guerre. This Franco-Belgian char- 
ity for refugees and the homeless and soldiers of the 
invaded districts on leave, provides shelter in the 
form of a seminary at Saint Sulpice, with 650 rooms, 
of which 520 are occupied by families of from four to 
eight members. There are 42 dormitories, containing 
18 to 50 beds, and from 1,200 to 2,200 persons are 
lodged in the building. On an average 4,000 meals 
are served daily. Clothes are given to the needy and 
work is provided for the refugees. The charity is 
subsidized by the Ministers of War and Finance and 
by the city of Paris. 

Contributions and other receipts totaling nearly 
$400,000 have been received by the New York Com- 
mittee of the Secours National, which is the principal 
organization in France for the relief of noncombat- 
ant sufferers from the war. This organization pro- 
vides immediate relief for the inhabitants of places 
destroyed by the enemy and provides for funds for 
the reconstruction of their homes. It maintains 
workshops for the unemployed, supports shelters 
and restaurants for French and Belgian refugees, 
makes provision for the care of orphaned or lost 
children and of the aged, and assists in the relief of 
civilians made prisoners by the Germans and later 
sent back to France through Switzerland, usually in a 
destitute and pitiful condition. The committee co- 
operates with the American Relief Clearing House of 
France and acts without charge as a purchasing and 
forwarding agent for organizations and individuals 

488 



WAR RELIEF ORGANIZATIONS 

wishing to contribute founds or supplies. There is 
no deduction from contributions for operating ex- 
penses, which are met privately. The New York 
committee consists of Mrs. Frederick H. Allen, Mrs. 
Robert Bacon, Mrs. W. Bayard Cutting, Mrs. Wil- 
liam Greenough, Mrs. F. Gray Griswold, Mrs. Walter 
Maynard, Mrs. Ogden Mills, Mrs. Francis K. Pendle- 
ton, Mrs. Nathaniel Thayer, Mrs. Edward M. Town- 
send, Mrs. Harry P. Whitney and Mrs. Whitney War- 
ren. 



CHAPTER XXXVI 

RELIEF FOR GREAT BRITAIN 

Relief work for Great Britain— British-American Re- 
lief Fund— Receipts amount to over $164,000— British 
War Relief Association — Chelsea War Refugees' Fund 
—American Branch Lord Beresford's Fund— Lady 
Helmsle/s Fund— London Motor Volunteer Corps- 
American Auxiliary Woman's Health Association of 
Ireland— Shamrock Fund— Scottish Highlanders Relief 
Association— Queen of Roumania Fund— New England- 
Italian War Relief. 

Among the well-known American women prominent 
in relief work for England may be mentioned : Lady 
Natica Lister-Kaye, The Duchess of Marlborough, 
Lady Randolph Churchill, Lady Lowther, and Lady 
Paget. Mrs. Whitelaw Reid, since America entered 
the conflict, has been prominently identified with the 
work that is being done in America for the relief of 
British war sufferers. Many other American women 
have been to England since the war began and have 
done, and are doing, valuable work in all fields. 

The British- American War Relief Fund, with Mrs. 
Frederick W. Whitridge, acting president, was formed 
to carry on the relief work for Great Britain and her 
Allies. Numerous branches have been established 
throughout the country, those on the Pacific Coast 
shipping directly to the war zones. A total of 

490 



WAR RELIEF ORGANIZATIONS 

1,544,561 articles have been shipped since the forma- 
tion of the Fund to June, 1917, and 882,769 of these 
were donated. There have also been shipped abroad 
5,000 pounds of aneesthetics and 200 boxes of grape 
fruit and oranges. Several hospital cots have been 
endowed and a Y. M. C. A. recreation hut provided 
and maintained on the firing line. In addition to 
these activities three motor ambulances were 
equipped and sent to France and one to Siberia. 
Money received totaled $163,093.81. 

The British War Belief Association, 542 Fifth 
Ave., New York City, was formed for the pur- 
pose of aiding the hospitals and relief stations in 
England, France and Belgium. It has collected for 
the purchase of hospital supplies, clothing, surgi- 
cal dressings, etc., more than $100,000 and has han- 
dled materials donated to the estimated value of 
more than $123,000. It has no direct branches but 
receives supplies from 60 groups of workers. The 
active membership is approximately 1,000, and its 
donors number more than 3,000. The British War 
Relief Association was the first War Relief Associa- 
tion incorporated in New York City. It had shipped 
up to October 1, 1917, 6,150 cases of hospital sup- 
plies, including ambulances, ether, knitted goods, rub- 
ber goods, surgical dressings, and clothing. Mrs. 
Oliver Herford is vice president of the Association 
and Mr. Walter Mulliner is secretary. 

Mrs. Fiske Warren is secretary and treasurer of 
the Chelsea War Refugees Fund in London. The 
first appeal for yarn to be sent abroad for the em- 
ployment and support of Belgian men and women 
refugees was received in this country in December, 

491 



AMERICAN WOMEN AND THE WORLD WAR 

1914, and six small cases of yarn were the first ship- 
ment to be distributed. The work in this country for 
this fund has steadily grown and has been aided by 
lectures by Mrs. Hamilton Osgood and through war 
postal sales conducted throughout the country. 
About 3,000 pounds of yarn are used every month, 
and the British War Office has contracted for every 
pair of socks that the Belgians can knit. The profits 
go to maintain a workroom for over 1,400 Belgian 
women. It is hoped to use contributions in the fu- 
ture for the maintenance of the knitting industry in 
Belgium itself. For many crippled and half -blinded 
men this will form the only employment to which they 
can look forward for a livelihood. Total receipts 
from the United States have reached more than 
$70,000, all of which has been expended for yarn and 
machines unless otherwise designated. There have 
also been many gifts of yarn, totaling about 77,000 
pounds in all. 

The American Committee known as Lord Charles 
Beresford's Fund, 25 Broad St., New York City, 
has nearly 800 branches. Its purpose is to sup- 
ply fresh fruits and vegetables to the fleets of 
the Allies and to the naval hospitals. Over 20,- 
000,000 pounds of fruits and vegetables have been 
distributed in this manner. It also distributes to 
army camps and depots and is now distributing 
fruits and vegetables to the American Fleet, cooper- 
ating with the British and French. Many American 
firms have given large contributions of these sup- 
plies. The Committee has the recognition and sup- 
port of the British Admiralty and the British War 
Office. 

492 



WAR RELIEF ORGANIZATIONS 

Lady Colebrooke is American chairman for Lady 
Helmsley's Fund in London. This Charity, organ- 
ized by Lady Helmsley, is in aid of artists of the 
musical and dramatic professions suffering through 
the war. It has three main objects. One is to pro- 
vide paid engagements for dramatic and musical art- 
ists in straightened circumstances, another is to en- 
courage British music, and the third is to provide 
high-class free concerts for wounded soldiers and sail- 
ors in hospitals in and near London. Since the for- 
mation of the Committee in November, 1914, more 
than 550 concerts have been given resulting in 4,000 
engagemnts and payments to artists of more than 
$22,500. 

The London Motor Volunteer Corps has for its pur- 
pose the assistance of soldiers arriving in London on 
their return from the trenches, and protects them 
from being preyed upon by the unscrupulous. The 
London Motor Volunteer Corps meets all night trains 
and welcomes returning sailors and soldiers, who are 
taken to their destinations in motor transports or to 
shelters provided by the Y. M. C. A., the Church of 
England and the Catholic Church, where they are 
cared for during the night. The same work is to be 
done for American soldiers and it is hoped to raise 
funds for as many busses as possible, each costing 
$1,700, to be grouped in units of six, each unit to be 
marked "The American Squadron." 

The American Auxiliary of the Women's National 
Health Association of Ireland has its headquarters in 
New York, No. 10 East 43rd St. The Marchioness 
of Aberdeen and Temair is president, and Miss 
Marie E. Keating is secretary. The Association 

493 



1 



AMERICAN WOMEN AND THE WORLD WAR 

was formed in 1907 to promote health and hap 
piness in the homes of Ireland, and especially to 
combat tuberculosis and infant mortality. For 
the purpose of promoting the child welfare 
work of the Association in this country the fol- 
lowing ladies are cooperating: Mrs. Joseph H. 
Choate, Mrs. James W. Wadsworth, Jr., Mrs. William 
Seward Webb, Mrs. John Hays Hammond, Mrs. Rich- 
ard C. Cabot, and Mrs. Willard D. Straight. 

The Scottish Highlanders' Relief Association of 
Highland Societies in Edinburgh has its American 
headquarters at 360 Madison Avenue, New York 
City, and the organization has the hearty support 
of the Saint Andrews' Society of New York and its 
officials. The Fund has been formed for providing 
comforts for the men of the Highlands Scottish Regi- 
ments, for training disabled soldiers of these regi- 
ments, to fit them for agricultural and other pursuits. 
The Association has helped to establish a farm col- 
ony in the North of Scotland, where disabled men of 
the Highland Regiments, returning from the front, 
are provided, not only with a home but with necessary 
instructions to enable them later to become self-sup- 
porting. The Association also seeks to relieve dis- 
tress among the families of the soldiers. 

The Shamrock Fund originated with Mr. Goodfel- 
low who donated a home in Dublin for the benefit of 
Irish soldiers disabled by the war. ''Thirteen hun- 
dred of them have already come home," says the ap- 
peal. ''Some have lost arms, some legs; there are 
men totally or partially paralyzed and many whose 
nerves will never recover the effects of poison 
gas and shell shot, to say nothing of tuberculosis and 

494 



WAR RELIEF ORGANIZATIONS 

other diseases contracted in the trenches. These men 
can never return to their former occupations. They 
must be taught new trades and given a fresh start in 
life." The home in Dublin will accommodate 150 
men and has workshops annexed in which they will be 
taught tailoring, boot making, carpentry, electric 
work, motor mechanism, shorthand, typewriting, 
bookkeeping, etc. As each man completes his train- 
ing he will return to his own part of the country with 
a fresh grasp on life to carry on his trade. The 
Countess of Kingston is organizing this Fund in 
America and has offices at 39 East 58th Street, New 
York City. Miss Mary Dougherty is secretary. 

About two-thirds of the Kingdom of Roumania has 
been occupied by the enemy ; towns and villages have 
been burned, women, old men and children have been 
murdered. German armies have seized the food sup- 
plies of that part of Roumania within their jurisdic- 
tion and little could be done to help the unfortunates 
there, but many thousands fled to what is left of free 
Roumania, with barely clothes on their backs, and 
these were without shelter and without food. In 
order to relieve this distress as far as possible, the 
Roumanian Relief Committee of America was formed 
under the patronage of her Majesty, Queen Marie of 
Roumania. The funds raised in America go to the 
relief of both the refugees and the wounded and the 
sick soldiers and are expended in purchasing food, 
clothing and medical supplies, which the Roumanian 
Government will forward free of cost. Supplies are 
distributed under the direct authority of the Queen 
of Roumania, to whom all goods are consigned. 

The New England-Italian War Relief Fund was 

495 



AMERICAN WOMEN AND THE WORLD WAR 

organized in 1915 for relieving the distress of non- 
combatant Italians. A workshop has been maintained 
in Boston where wives of reservists have been em- 
ployed in making socks and clothing for the Italian 
hospitals at the front, and are paid for the work 
they do. A stock of supplies of wool, an^Esthetics, 
etc., was sent direct to Italy, and several hundred 
women and children have been provided for. Ap- 
proximately $45,000 was raised in less than two years, 
and more than 19,000 articles have been completed 
and forwarded to Italy. Mrs. Henry L. Mason is 
secretary of the fund and Mrs. George Lee is chair- 
man. 



CHAPTER XXXVII 
RELIEF FOR POLAND AND RUSSIA 

Poland^s pathetic appeal — Madame Helena Paderewski 
joins her husband in reUef for native land — ^Polish 
Central Relief — Americans seek to relieve distress in 
Russia — Lithuanian War Relief Committee — Armenian 
and Syrian Relief — Serbian Relief Committee. 

No APPEAL has seemed to strike more deeply into 
the great, sympathetic heart of America than that of 
war-stricken Poland, where all the children under 
seven years of age have died ; where a territory filled 
with people at peace with all the world was sud- 
denly transformed into one great battlefield of tramp- 
ing millions; where 300 towns, and over 2,000 
churches consecrated to peace, love, and the worship 
of God, are in ashes; where 14,000,000 people have 
died since the war began. These tragic facts have 
been brought home to the people of America by the 
great Paderewski, who founded the National Amer- 
ican Committee for the Polish Victims* Relief Fund. 
Mr. Paderewski frequently reminded us that on No- 
vember 5, 1916, Germany and Austria offered free- 
dom and independence to those parts of devastated 
Poland which they had reconquered from Russia ; and 
in exchange for its liberation the miniature Kingdom 
of Poland was to contribute 1,012,000 volunteer 
soldiers to fight the battles of the Central Powers ; and 

497 



AMERICAN WOMEN AND THE WORLD WAR 

that this magnanimous and strategic ruse resulted in 
utter failure — only 680 men, half of them former con- 
victs, having responded to Germany's call to arms 
and, according to reports, 30,000 Poles were hanged 
for refusing to enlist. Mr. Paderewski reminded us 
also that, although politically inexistent, Poland has 
contributed to the cause of the Allies more soldiers 
than either Poland or Servia; 1,300,000 to the Rus- 
sian Army, 7,000 to the French Army, 2,000 to the 
Canadian Army, and in response to the appeal of 
President Wilson, the Poles in the United States of- 
fered this Government 100,000 volunteer soldiers and 
500 officers. It is not surprising that such an appeal 
from a man who has made tremendous personal sacri- 
fices should have reached America's heart, and that 
the contributions for Polish relief work have been 
substantial ones. 

Of special interest to American women will be 
the work of Madame Paderewski, who has con- 
secrated her life to the work of relief in her be- 
loved and devastated land. Madame Paderewski 
while in Paris late in 1915 conceived the idea of sell- 
ing dolls for the benefit of the Polish Relief Fund. 
These wonderful dolls are made by the Polish refu- 
gees in Paris — artists, sculptors, writers — all people 
of talent and many of them well-known; by engaging 
them to make the dolls Madame Paderewski has not 
only been able to provide support for these gifted 
workers, but she has been able to raise in this way 
more than $25,000, having sold about 10,000 dolls. 
Her doll atelier in Paris has been a refuge for all 
sorts of people, professors of universities, newspaper 
men, lawyers, blind and maimed soldiers, children, 

498 



WAR RELIEF ORGANIZATIONS 

all have found bread and shelter until a better oppor- 
tunity presented itself. **I am very happy," said 
Madame Paderewski, 'Hhat because of these dolls the 
flower of Polish youth has been able to survive and 
the lives of many Polish babies have been saved.'* 
But there is a much more important work now to 
which Madame Paderewski is devoting her life. This 
is an American refuge for suffering womanhood — a 
home for Polish girls in Warsaw, Poland. Of this 
work Madame Paderewski says, *'More than five hun- 
dred thousand young girls of my country, Poland, 
have had their lives shattered by the greatest tragedy 
that can come to a woman. Victims of the conquer- 
ing and retiring armies that have incessantly swept 
over Poland since the beginning of the war, these un- 
fortunate young mothers, the majority of whose babies 
have died for want of food, clothing and shelter, find 
themselves outcasts — helpless, alone. They come from 
all classes. That which made them the most pitiable 
of war victims does not respect rank nor recognize 
virtue. Their physical suffering, unspeakably severe 
as it has been, is exceeded by mental agony that in- 
creases with the realization of their condition as they 
face the future. A home must be provided for these 
unfortunate ones. They must be put into an atmos- 
phere of hope and courage. From this center, as an 
outgrowth, other branch institutions similar in aim 
and character, but entirely self-supporting will be es- 
tablished in Galicia, Lithuania and all over Poland. 
By this means I hope not only to give aid to my needy 
countrywomen but through them to revive the an- 
cient arts for which Poland has been so justly famous, 
including tapestry weaving, lace making, metallic 

499 



AMERICAN WOMEN AND THE WORLD WAR 

and silken embroidery, wood carving and the world fa- 
mous art products of Zakopane. Sympathy is the 
sweetest gift God has given to our sex, and I am sure 
American women will devise ways and means at once 
to have a share in this noble work. ' ' 

The Polish Central Belief Committee of America, 
was founded shortly after the outbreak of the 
war, October 2, 1914. ''This,'' writes one of the 
officers, "is the first Polish war relief organization, not 
only in America, but also in the world, as the General 
Committee for Polish Eelief in Vevey was organized 
later, on January 9, 1915. 

' ' Upon organization of the Committee at Vevey, the 
Polish Central Relief Committee of America im- 
mediately, upon invitation, joined this organization 
as a branch committee for work in America and 
named its representatives thereto, recognizing the 
Vevey Committee as the central organization for Pol- 
ish war relief in the world. 

' ' The real branch agency of the General Committee 
for Polish Relief of Vevey and central agency for 
Polish relief work in America, is therefore, the 
Polish Central Relief Committee of America with of- 
fices in Chicago, embracing all the largest and most 
important Polish organizations in America, namely: 
Polish National Alliance, 130,000; Polish Roman 
Catholic Union, 115,000; Polish Clergy Union, 800; 
Polish Falcons Alliance, 25,000; Polish Women's Al- 
liance, 25,000; Polish Alma Mater, 6,000; Polish 
Association of America, 8,000 ; Polish Brotherhood of 
St. Joseph, 6,000; Polish Union of Buffalo, 15,000; 
Polish Union of Wilkes-Barre, 15,000; Alliance of 
Poles in America, 8,000; Polish Uniformed Societies 

500 



WAR RELIEF ORGANIZATIONS 

of America, 5,000; and Polish Singers Alliance, 
3,000.1 

''All these organizations have submitted themselves, 
in the matter of war relief, to the direction and con- 
trol of the Polish Central Relief Committee of Amer- 
ica, which, on the other hand, holds the right to con- 
trol the proper distribution of funds by the General 
Polish Relief Committtee at Vevey through its repre- 
sentatives, and receives from there regular reports 
as to this distribution. ' ' 

The relief funds collected by all the organizations 
constituting the Polish Relief Committee of America 
amount to about $2,000,000 — of which the largest 
sum, around $300,000, was collected by the Executive 
Committee of the P. C. R. C. of A. 

The Polish University Grants Committee of the 
Polish Victims' Relief Fund was organized in the 
spring of 1916 by Madame Jane Arctowska as a re- 
sult of letters received from Polish friends stating the 
misery existing among the Polish intellectuals who 
were refugees and without a means of livelihood be- 
cause of the war, and the great need there was of 
help. 

A number of prominent men and women who sym- 
pathized with this work consented to serve on the 
committee together with Madame Pierre Curie and 
Mrs. Robert Bliss. 

At the beginning all money collected was distrib- 
uted among the refugees, but as soon as it was found 
that help could be extended to Poland a committee 
of three persons was formed in Warsaw for the super- 
vision of the distribution of the fund. The money 

1 Figures indicate membership. 

501 



AMERICAN WOMEN AND THE WORLD WAR 

sent to Warsaw is taken by carrier from Switzerland 
and in this way more than $6,000 has been sent into 
Poland. This fund has sent to Europe more than 
$16,000 of which $6,000 has gone into Poland and the 
remaining $10,000 has been distributed by the Paris 
Committee to refugees in France, Switzerland, Hol- 
land and Italy. 

Among other organizations doing relief work for 
Poland are the following: Friends of Poland, Bos- 
ton, Mass.; Emergency Aid Committee, Philadelphia; 
Polish Relief Committee, Los Angeles; Polish Suf- 
ferers' War Relief Fund, IJtica, N. Y.; Polish Relief 
Committee, Rochester; Polish Victims' Relief Fund, 
Wilkes-Barre, Pa. 

The Russian War Relief Committee was formed 
for the purpose of evidencing the long-existing friend- 
ship of Americans for Russia. Starvation upon a 
scale more widespread than in any other country, be- 
cause of the immensity of its population, is existent in 
Russia. Five million men, women and children, 
driven from Poland and Galicia into the provinces of 
Russia, were without food, clothing and shelter, in 
the first years of the war, and there was also a 
dangerous dearth of hospital supplies and equipment. 
It was to aid in relieving these needs that the Russian 
War Relief Committee was formed to support the 
Wynne-Bevan Ambulance Unit. Mrs. William Astor 
Chanler has been prominently identified with this 
work. 

The American Ambulance in Russia, of which Miss 
Elsa Maxwell is assistant secretary and Miss Ethel D. 
Hamilton, assistant treasurer, had collected up to 
July, 1917, approximately $130,000 and had 50 

502 



WAR RELIEF ORGANIZATIONS 

American ambulances in Russia doing active service 
directly behind the lines in the foothills of the Car- 
pathian Mountains. In the fall of 1917 the commit- 
tee uijdertook to raise sufficient funds to install a 
complete American Ambulance Hospital in Russia at 
a cost of $200,000, which sum was required to estab- 
lish the hospital and to maintain it for one year. The 
committee has sent forward large quantities of 
gauze, bandages, chloroform and other hospital sup- 
plies in addition to the ambulances, and Dr. Philip 
Newton was sent by the committee to Russia as Chief 
Surgeon of the ambulance units operating there. 
The ambulances have been endeavoring to care for the 
wounded of an entire army corps of 55,000 men, and 
in his 1917 report Dr. Newton stated that every time 
there was a big battle the unit was overwhelmed and 
the wounded that could not be carried in the am- 
bulances had to be transported in carts and hay 
wagons. During one battle the American ambulances 
in Russia carried over 2,200 wounded soldiers within 
a period of six days. The American ambulance in 
Russia is the only American organization working 
with the Russian Army. 

The Refugees in Russia Fund was formed to succor 
the millions of children and aged, homeless in Russia, 
forced to flee before the invading armies. The dis- 
bursements of money collected in the United States 
are supervised by a committee in Petrograd and by 
Thomas Whittimore, who represents the committee 
in the field in Russia. 

The Lithuanian Central War Relief Committee 
was organized in 1916, in Wilkes-Barre, Pa., for 
the purpose of collecting funds and clothing for the 

503 



AMERICAN WOMEN AND THE WORLD WAR 

relief of Lithuanians in the war-stricken zone. Its 
first most important work was the directing of the 
universal ''Lithuanian Day" proclaimed by Presi- 
dent Wilson as November 1, 1916. Shortly^ after- 
ward, owing to its rapid growth, the Central War Re- 
lief Committee moved its main office from Wilkes- 
Barre to New York City, where it also overtook the 
work of the absolving Lithuanian American Relief 
Committee. With a system of branches, in charge of 
volunteer workers, in all of the largest cities of the 
Union and in a great many smaller ones, the Lithua- 
nian Central War Relief Committee next instituted a 
monthly subscription plan by which Lithuanians in 
the various cities are enabled to contribute a small 
amount per month toward relief of their kindred in 
Europe. 

Later the Lithuanian Central War Relief Commit- 
tee established close relationship with the Lithuanian 
relief committee in Lithuania, Switzerland, Kussia, 
and Sweden. With information received from these 
countries explaining the situation of the Lithuanian 
sufferers, the Lithuanian Central War Relief Commit- 
tee has successfully carried on its work of relief 
through monthly subscriptions and various other do- 
nations raised by means of fairs, bazaars, balls, and 
other benefits. These European organizations have 
also sent their representatives to this country, and 
under the auspices of the Lithuanian Central War 
Relief Committee these men have collected large 
amounts of money for the ever-increasing number of 
Lithuanian orphans, widows and crippled soldiers in 
the various European allied or neutral countries. 

A junior league has been formed to which belong 

504 



WAR RELIEF ORGANIZATIONS 

all children who donate a small monthly sum to the 
fund for orphan children. 

Among the prominent men interested in the organi- 
zation are M. Yeas, member of the former Russian 
Duma and at present vice president of the Depart- 
ment of Education in Russia; Dr. J. Basanavicius, 
president of the Society of Science, Vilna; and Dr. 
J. Szliupas, leader of the American Lithuanians. 

From November 1, 1816, to October, 1917, the total 
of the donations received by the Lithuanian Central 
War Relief Committee amounted to $193,065.56. 

The executive board consists of: President, J. S. 
Lopatto ; treasurer, M. W. Bush ; vice president, V. F. 
Yankovsky; vice president, P. S. Vilmont; secre- 
tary, Y. K. Rackauskas; executive secretary, Y. Yen- 
eius. 

The American Committee for Armenian and Syrian 
relief was formed in October, 1915, and in less than 
two years total contributions aggregated $3,400,00. 
The purpose of the committee has been to save the 
lives of the members of the Christian Races threatened 
with extermination through the war in Western Asia. 
Many base relief hospitals have been established at 
various centers, from which help has been distributed 
through wide areas. In the Russian Caucasus, thou- 
sands of orphaned children are under the care of 
agents of the, organization. The committee has solic- 
ited funds to support these children at a cost of three 
dollars per month per capita, and is also aiding older 
people. All contributions have gone directly for re- 
lief in Western Asia, the expense of administration 
having been met privately. Many auxiliary branches 
have been organizing through the United States, the 

505 



AMERICAN WOMEN AND THE WORLD WAR 

aim being to have a branch in every state in the 
Union. Many people bought liberty bonds and do- 
nated them to this fund, and at a Billy Sunday meet- 
ing held in New York City $120,000 was subscribed. 
While this committee was not organized by women, 
nor do they take chief part in the administrative 
part of the work, many women are rendering splendid 
service at the relief centers abroad, in the Russian 
Caucasus and even in Syria and Turkey. The ma- 
jority of relief given hy the committee is to women 
refugees and their children. Among the various 
committees in this country engaged in raising relief 
funds there are several women of marked ability. 
These are missionaries who have spent many years 
in the East but who were forced home at the begin- 
ning of the war. 

Nothing in the thrilling story of American relief 
work is more filled with heart-interest than is the rec- 
ord of achievement of the Serbian Relief Committee 
of America. The committee was formed in 1914, 
and in March, 1915, the sum of $20,000 was cabled to 
Serbia for seed corn and flour for replanting the 
district devastated by the unsuccessful Austrian in- 
vasion of the previous autumn. This was followed 
with a shipment of 1,000 American plows, harrows 
and hand tools, and $30,000 worth of clothing for the 
needy, including 148,000 yards of material for cloth- 
ing and bedding, 80 sewing machines, 200,000 needles, 
5,000 spools of thread, and 200 pounds of pins. 
When these things arrived the farmers were all at the 
Front, but the women planted the fields and the crop 
was good. The Serbian Government sent its warmest 
thanks for the excellent "foreign tools,'* and for the 

506 



WAR RELIEF ORGANIZATIONS 

generosity that prompted them. It was then that 
the typhus epidemic swept over the country, bring- 
ing its untold misery, and the contributions to the 
anti-typhus campaign amounted to more than $68,- 
000. No sooner was the typhus overcome, and the 
nation convalescent, than Serbia was invaded simul- 
taneously by Germany, Bulgaria and Austria. Help 
was promised by the Allies but, unfortunately, it 
could not be given in time, and the Serbian Army, 
fighting and retreating with a strategy that will be 
deathless in history, accompanied by all the popula- 
tion who could march, retired over the snow-clad 
mountains of Albania and Montenegro, till the sea 
barred their further retreat. They were then in a 
destitute country, without food, exhausted, and dying 
by hundreds. Again the Serbian Relief Committee 
of America and its associates chartered a small ship, 
and removed as many of them as possible, continuing 
the work until the Allied Governments were able to 
take it up. The Committee ^s share of this expense 
was $11,000. The sick were taken to Corsica where 
the Scottish Women's Hospital did excellent work 
for them. Under the auspices of the American Com- 
mittee Mrs. Farnam and Miss Burke rais"ed a fund of 
over $30,000 for this work. Those who were physi- 
cally able to go were taken to France, where the Com- 
mittee contributed for the work $1,000. Two later 
appropriations amounting to $59,000 were for food 
for the poor in Serbia. 

This Commission is authorized by the Teuton and 
Bulgar Military Government. Supplies are pur- 
chased in Roumania at a fair rate, and are easily for- 
warded by a short railway journey to Belgrade, 

507 



AMERICAN WOMEN AND THE WORLD WAR 

where they are received by the Commission and dis- 
tributed exclusively by them. What makes this par- 
ticularly interesting to Americans is that the Swiss- 
Serbian Relief Committee, as well as all Serbian relief 
committees in existence, are uniting in sending their 
help through the Americans. Thus America stands 
as a leader in this great work. 

The Serbian Relief Committee of America was 
formed with the sanction of the Royal Serbian Gov- 
ernment and is under the patronage of Her Royal 
Highness, Princess Helen of Serbia, Madame Jus- 
serand, Madame Bakhmeteff, Lady Spring Rice, and 
the Honorable Consul General of Serbia, M. I. Pupin, 
LL.D., Se. D. The president of the organization is 
Charles W. Eliot, LL.D. M.D., Ph. D., M.A., and 
among the American women who have been 
prominently identified with the work are Mrs. 
Whitelaw Reid, Mrs. Charles S. Fairchild, 
Mrs. W. S. Cowles, Mrs. F. W. Whitbridge, 
Mrs. Douglas Robinson, Mrs. Robert P. Huntington, 
Mrs. H. H. Jenkins, Mrs. Robert Burnside Potter, 
Mrs. Alfred Coats, Mrs. Goodhue Livingston, Mrs. T. 
Tileston Wells, Mrs. John Henry Hammond, Mrs. 
George S. Brewster, Mrs. Breck Trowbridge, Mrs. 
Thomas Jex Preston, Princess Peirre Troubetskoy, 
Miss Annie B. Jennings, Mrs. L. H. McCormick, and 
Mrs. R. S. Pierrepont. The organization has head- 
quarters at 70 Fifth Avenue, New York City. 

The Serbian Hospitals' Fund, through which so 
much that is generous and beautiful has been done, 
was conceived and organized by Madame Slavko 
Grovitch. Since the outbreak of the war she has de- 
voted herself to relief work for Serbia. In August, 

508 



WAR RELIEF ORGANIZATIONS 

1914, she took a party of nurses and hospital equip- 
ment with her to Serbia, and herself assisted in the 
work of the hospital where they were installed. In 
January, 1915, Madame Groviteh arrived in America 
and, with the help of friends organized the Serbian 
Agricultural Relief Committee (70 Fifth Avenue, 
New York City) now called the Serbian Relief 
Committee, for which she raised over $100,000; 
a Serbian Relief Committee in New Haven, 
under the leadership of Professor Beebe of Yale 
University; the Serbian Distress Fund of Bos- 
ton, of which Dr. Morton Prince is chairman. 
Madame Groviteh then made a lecture tour of some 
months, speaking in most of the large cities and or- 
ganizing committees in various places. 

In July, 1915, she returned to Serbia where she 
established the Mabel Groviteh Baby Hospital with 
funds contributed in America by personal friends. 
She was accompanied by Miss Elizabeth Shelley of 
Washington. 

Later, Madame Groviteh made the historic retreat 
across Albania after the invasion of Serbia by the 
Austro-German army. After arriving in Greece and 
finding there many women and children of the better 
classes living in great poverty, she decided to collect 
a special fund for their relief. On her return to the 
United States in March, 1917, she founded the Ser- 
bian Hospitals' Fund, at the same time carrying on 
her Fund for the Serbian Families. The total 
amount collected for the Fund through the lectures 
and appeals of Madame Groviteh is approximately 
$104,000 since March, 1916. 

In April, 1917, Madame Groviteh went to Berne, 

509 



AMERICAN WOMEN AND THE WORLD WAR 

as her husband is stationed there as Serbian minister 
to Switzerland. She has been personally engaged in 
the work of distributing relief to the refugee families 
there, to Serbian students in France and Switzerland, 
and also the prisoners of war both in Austria and 
Germany, and those interned in Switzerland and 
France. 

She returned to America in November to continue 
her work. In addition to continuing the Fund for 
Students and Families, Madame Grovitch came also 
as the special delegate of the Swiss-American Com- 
mittee for the Relief of Allied Prisoners of War in- 
terned in Switzerland. She conducted the Serbian 
booth at the Allied Bazaar, "Hero Land," and also 
an exhibit sent on by the Swiss- American Committee 
of Articles made by the allied prisoners of war in- 
terned in Switzerland and France. 

Even the animals have not been forgotten in the 
war relief work of American women. Mrs. Elphin- 
stone Maitland is at the head of what is known as the 
Blue Cross Fund, designed to help suffering horses in 
war time. Mrs. Maitland is also chairman of ''Our 
Dumb Friends' League,'* a society for the encourage- 
ment of kindness to animals. It is interesting to 
know that dogs are being used in many ways in the 
war, including sentinels, despatch carriers, ammuni- 
tion guards, to seek out wounded, as convoys, etc. 
The dogs must first undergo an examination before a 
board with a special jury. If they are accepted for 
service they are placed in centers for instruction, 
preparation and training. They are intrusted with 
experienced trainers who make them familiar with 
their positions as soldiers, and they are taught cour- 

510 



WAR RELIEF ORGANIZATIONS 

age, discipline, sangfroid, prudence and dispatch. 
It is only after a long course in these schools that the 
dogs are sent to the front for active service. 

As sentinels the dogs are used in the trenches. It 
is said that some dogs have saved whole companies of 
infantry in time of fog by showing by their growling 
the near presence of German forces. They carry or- 
ders and instructions from one unit to another across 
country exposed to shell fire, and they go swiftly 
through places inaccessible to man. One dog had its 
jaw broken while on such a mission, but in spite of 
the wound it carried the message to its destination. 
Ambulance dogs are required to discover the wounded 
and to find the ambulances. They carry to the latter 
the cap of the wounded man or some object indicat- 
ing the unit to which he belongs. The Blue Cross 
has established canine infirmaries for these dogs. It 
gathers together the wounded, the deaf, the physically 
overridden and those suffering from other diseases. 
The society has founded kennels at the base and at 
the front. The former are close to the training cen- 
ters and the latter are with the armies. Each estab- 
lishment consists of a certified veterinary surgeon, 
several attendants and grooms. The Blue Cross War 
Dog Service depends entirely upon voluntary sub- 
scriptions. 



^ 



PART IV 

A DIRECTORY OF LEADING WOMEN'S 
ORGANIZATIONS DOING DEFENSE WORK. 



DIRECTORY 

GENERAL OFFICERS 

DIVISION OF WOMEN'S WAR WORK OF THE 
COMMITTEE ON PUBLIC INFORMATION, 
No. 10 Jackson Place, Washington, D. C. — A 
Bureau of general information concerning all 
phases of women's work in war, data, personnel, 
etc., Clara Sears Taylor, director. 

WOMAN'S COMMITTEE OF THE COUNCIL OF 
NATIONAL DEFENSE, National Headquar- 
ters, 1814 N Street, Washington, D. C. 

Dr. Anna Howard Shaw, Chairman. 

Miss Hannah J. Patterson, Chairman Committee on 
Registration. 

Mrs. Stanley McCormick, Chairman Committee on 
Food Production and Home Economics. 

Miss Ida M. Tarbell, Chairman Committee on Food 
Administration. 

Miss Agnes Nestor, Chairman Committee on Women 
in Industry. 

Mrs. Josiah Evans Cowles, Chairman Committee on 
Child Welfare. 

Mrs. Philip North Moore, Chairman Committee on 
Maintenance of Exisiting Social Service Agen- 
cies. 

Mrs. Philip North Moore, Chairman Committee on 

515 



AMERICAN WOMEN AND THE WORLD WAR 

Health and Recreation (Safeguarding Moral and 

Spiritual Forces). 
Mrs. Carrie Chapman Catt, Chairman Committee 

on Education. 
Mrs. Antoinette Funk, Chairman Committee on 

Liberty Loan. 
Miss Maude Wetmore, Chairman Committee on 

Home and Foreign Relief. 
Mrs. Joseph R. Lamar, Chairman Committee on 

State Organization. 
Miss Hannah J. Patterson, Resident Director. 

AMERICAN RED CROSS, National Headquarters, 
Washington, D. C, Women's Bureau, Miss Flor- 
ence M. Marshall, Director. All women's work 
done for the Red Cross, except nursing, including 
the making of surgical dressings, hospital sup- 
plies and garments, and knit goods and comfort 
kits, is standardized, supervised, instructed and 
inspected by this Bureau. 

Bureau of Nursing, Miss Jane A. Delano, Director, 
Miss Clara D. Noyes, Assistant. 

Division Directors op Women's Work, Atlantic 
Division (Connecticut, New York and New 
Jersey) Miss Ellen L. Adee; Central Divi- 
sion (Illinois, Iowa, Michigan, Nebraska, Wis- 
consin) Miss Ina Taft, 180 N. Wabash St., 
Chicago, 111.; Gulf Division, (Alabama, Louisi- 
ana, Mississippi), Mrs. E. E. Moberley; Lake 
Division (Indiana, Ohio, Kentucky) Mrs. H. L. 
Sanford, 929 Garfield Bldg., Cleveland, Ohio; 

516 



DIRECTORY 

Mountain Division (Colorado, New Mexico, Utah, 
Wyoming), Mr. Henry Swan, 14th and Welton 
Streets, Denver, Colo.; New England Division, 
(Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode 
Island, Vermont), Miss Lavina H. Newell, 755 
Boylston Street, Boston, Mass.; Northern Divi- 
sion (Minnesota, Montana, North Dakota, South 
Dakota) Mrs. F. L. Fridley, Essex Bldg., Minne- 
apolis, Minn.; Northwestern Division (Idaho, 
Oregon, Washington), Lucy C. Hilton, 227 White 
Bldg., Seattle, Wash. ; Pacific Division (Arizona, 
California, Nevada) Mrs. A. L. McLeish; Penn- 
sylvania Division, Mrs. J. Willis Martin, 1601 
Walnut Street, Philadelphia; Potomac Division 
(District of Columbia, Maryland, Virginia, West 
Virginia) Mrs. F. M. Chapman, 930 14th Street, 
Washington, D. C. ; Southern Division (Florida, 
Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennes- 
see) Mrs. John W. Grant, 424 Healy Bldg., 
Atlanta, Ga. ; Southwestern Division (Arkansas, 
Kansas, Missouri, Oklahoma, Texas) Mrs. Ed- 
mund F. Brown, 1617 Railway Exchange, St. 
Louis, Mo. 

GENERAL FEDERATION OF WOMEN'S CLUBS. 

Mrs. Josiah Evans Cowles, president, Los Ange- 
les, California. 

Miss Georgia A. Bacon, first vice president, Wor- 
cester, Mass. 

Mrs. Eugene Reilley, second vice president, Char- 
lotte, N. C. 

Mrs. W. I. McFarland, recording secretary, Wag- 
ner, S. D. 

517 



AMERICAN WOMEN AND THE WORLD WAR 

Mrs. Francis D. Everett, corresponding secretary, 
Highland Park, 111. 

Mrs. William B. Young, treasurer, Jacksonville, 
Fla. 

Mrs. William P. Harper, auditor, Seattle, Wash. 

National Service Office, Maryland Bldg., Wash- 
ington, D. C, Miss Helen Louise Johnston, di- 
rector. 

DAUGHTERS OF AMERICAN REVOLUTION— 

Mrs. George Thacher Guernsey, president gen- 
eral. Memorial Continental Hall, Washington, 
D. C. 

Mrs. J. F. Maupin, vice president general, Ports- 
mouth, Va. 

Mrs. Joseph S. Wood, vice president general, Mt. 
Vernon, N. Y. 

Mrs. Eliza Ferry Leary, vice president general, 
Seattle, Wash. 

Mrs. C. B. Letton, vice president general, Lin- 
coln, Nebraska. 

Mrs. Edmund P. Moody, vice president general, 
Wilmington, Del. 

Mrs. G. Wallace W. Hanger, vice president gen- 
eral, Washington, D. C. 

Mrs. William C. Robinson, vice president general, 
North Anson, Maine. 

Mrs. George Maynard Minor, vice president gen- 
eral, Waterford, Conn. 

Mrs. William G. Spencer, vice president general, 
Nashville, Tenn. 

Mrs. William Butterworth, vice president general, 
Hillcrest, Moline, 111. 

518 



DIRECTORY 

Mrs. Harold R. Howell, vice president general, Des 

Moines, Iowa. 
Mrs. C. Hamilton Tebault, vice president general, 

New Orleans, La. 
Mrs. Alvin V. Lane, vice president general, Dallas, 

Texas. 
Mrs. George W. Gedney, vice president general, 

Montclair, N. J. 
Mrs. James Benton Grant, vice president general, 

Denver, Colo. 
Mrs. Fred H. H. Calhoun, vice president general, 

Clemson College, S. C. 
Mrs. Charles E. Longley, vice president general, 

Pawtucket, R. I. 
Miss Jeanie D. Blackburn, vice president general, 

Bowling Green, Ky. 
Mrs. Samuel McKnight Green, vice president gen- 
eral, St. Louis, Mo. 
Mrs. Sheppard W. Foster, vice president general, 

Atlanta, Ga. 
Mrs. William H. Talbott, vice president general, 

Rockville, Md. 

Miss Elizabeth F. Pierce, chaplain general, The 
Portner Apartments, Washington, D. C. 

Miss Emma L. Crowell, recording secretary general. 

Mrs. Duncan U. Fletcher, organizing secretary gen- 
eral. 

Mrs. Robert J. Johnston, treasurer general. 

Mrs. Woodbury Pulsifier, corresponding secretary 
general. 

Miss Grace M. Pierce, registrar general. 

Mrs. George K. Clarke, historian general. 

Mrs. Benjamin D. Heath, director general in charge 

519 



AMERICAN WOMEN AND THE WORLD WAR 

of Report to Smithsonian Institution, Heathcote, 
Charlotte, N. C. 

Mrs. James M. Fowler, librarian general. 

Miss Catherine Brittin Barlow, curator general. 

Headquarters, Memorial Continental Hall, Seven- 
teenth and D Streets, N. W., Washington, D. C. 

WOMEN'S CHRISTIAN TEMPERANCE UNION. 
Miss Anna A. Gordon, president, Evanston, 111. 
Mrs. Ella A. Boole, vice president-at-large 1429 

Avenue H, Brooklyn, N. Y. 
Mrs. Frances P. Parks, corresponding secretary, 

Evanston, 111. 
Mrs. Elizabeth P. Anderson, recording secretary, 

Fargo, N. D. 
Mrs. Sara H. Hoge, assistant recording secretary, 

Lincoln, Va. 
Mrs. Margaret C. Munns, treasurer, Evanston, 111. 
Headquarters, 1730 Chicago Avenue, Evanston, 111., 

Hotel Driscoll, Washington, D. C. 

YOUNG WOMEN'S CHRISTIAN ASSOCIATION 
—WAR WORK COUNCIL 

Mrs. James S. Cushman, chairman. New York City. 

Mrs. John R. Mott, vice chairman, Montclair, N. J. 

Mrs. John Meigs, vice chairman, Pottstown, Pa. 

Mrs. Henry P. Davison, treasurer, New York City. 

Mrs. Howard Morse, secretary pro-tem, Port Wash- 
ington, L. I. 

Mrs. E. R. L. Gould, chairman of committee on Ex- 
tension of Regular Work, New York City. 

Mrs. Francis DeLacy Hyde, chairman of committee 
on New Centers of Work, Plainfield, N. J. 

520 



DIRECTORY 

Mrs. John R. Mott, Chairman of Committee 

on Work in Foreign Countries, Montclair, N. J. 
Mrs. Robert Lovett, chairman of committee on 

Training of Workers, Locust Valley, Long Island. 
Mrs. Robert E. Speer, chairman of committee on 

Non-Equipment and Social Morality Work, En- 

glewood, N. J. 
Miss Elizabeth French, chairman on committee on 

Junior Council, Basking Ridge, N. J. 
Mrs. William Adams Brown, chairman of commit- 
tee on Cooperation and Publicity, New York 

City. 
Mrs. Herbert Pratt, chairman of committee on 

Finance, Glen Cove, Long Island. 
Mrs. John French, ex-officio chairman of executive 

committee of national board, New York City. 
Miss Helen A. Davis, ex-officio executive. Field 

Work Department, New York City. 
Miss Mabel Cratty, general secretary. National 

Board, New York City. 

NATIONAL CONGRESS OF MOTHERS AND 
PARENT-TEACHERS' ASSOCIATION 

Mrs. Frederic Schoff, president, Philadelphia, Pa. 

Mrs. Arthur A. Bimey, corresponding secretary, 
Washington, D. C. 

Mrs. Hubert N RoweU, treasurer, Berkeley, Cali- 
fornia. 

Mrs. David 0. Mears, vice president, New York 
City. 

Mrs. Milton P. Higgins, vice president, Worcester, 
Mass. 

Mrs. Fred Dick, vice president, Denver, Colo. 

521 



AMERICAN WOMEN AND THE WORLD WAR 

Mrs. Eugene Crutcher, vice president, Nashville, 
Tenn. 

Miss Elizabeth Harrison, vice president, Chicago, 
111. 

Mrs. Philander P. Claxton, vice president, Wash- 
ington, D. C. 

Mrs. Charles McDaris, vice president, St. Louis, 
Mo. 

Mrs. J. C. Todd, vice president, Tacoma, Wash. 

Mrs. A. H. Reeve, vice president, Chestnut Hill, 
Philadelphia, Pa. 

Mrs. Chalmers Hutchinson, vice president. Fort 
Worth, Texas. 

Mrs. J. R. Francis, recording secretary, Columbus, 
Ohio. 

Mrs. N. C. Bagley, financial secretary, Birming- 
ham, Ala. 

Mrs. B. F. Hardeman, auditor, Montgomery, Ala. 

Mrs. Giles S. Rafter, historian, Washington, D. C. 

Mrs. William T. Carter, honorary vice president. 

Mrs. Joseph P. Mumford, honorary vice president. 

Mrs. Robert R. Cotton, honorary vice president. 

Mrs. Harriett A. McLellan, honorary vice presi- 
dent. 

Mrs. E. A. Tuttle, honorary vice president. 

Mrs. W. F. Thacher, honorary vice president. 

Mrs. George K. Johnson, honorary vice president. 

Advisory Council: 

Col. Theodore Eoosevelt. 
Hon. P. P. Claxton, Washington, D. C. 
Mr. Roger M. McMuUen, Chicago, 111. 
Mr. Frederic Schoff, Philadelphia, Pa. 

522 



DIRECTORY 

G. Stanley Hall, Ph.D., Worcester, Mass. 

Mrs. Ella Flagg Young, Chicago, 111. 

Dr. William P. Wilson, Philadelphia, Pa. 

Hon. Elmer Ellsworth Brown, Washington, D. C. 

Mr. Dion Birney, Washington, D. C. 

Mr. George K. Johnson, Philadelphia, Pa. 

William E. Bryan, Ph.D., Bloomington, Ind. 

COUNCIL OF JEWISH WOMEN— 

Janet S. Harris, (Mrs. Nathaniel E.), president, 
Bradford, Pa. 

Anna Hertzberg (Mrs. Eli), 1st vice president, San 
Antonio, Tex. 

Miss Rose Brenner, 2nd vice president, Brookljni, 
N. Y. 

Mrs. Harry Edna K. Glicksman, recording secre- 
tary, New Haven, Conn. 

Jenny K. Herz (Mrs. Leo H.), treasurer, New 
Haven, Conn. 

Mrs. Ernestine B. Dreyfus, executive secretary, 
Kansas City, Mo. 

Honorary Vice Presidents : 

Mrs. Jacob H. Schiff, New York City. 
Mrs. A. N. Cohen, New York City. 
Mrs. Hugo Rosenberg, Pittsburgh, Pa. 
Mrs. Solomon Hirsch, Portland, Oregon. 
Mrs. M. C. Sloss, San Francisco, Cal. 
Mrs. Caesar Misch, Providence, R. I. 
Mrs. Isidore Newman, New Orleans, La. 

UNITED STATES EMPLOYMENT SERVICE, 
Mrs. Hilda Mulhauzer Richards, assistant direc- 
tor, Department of Labor, Washington, D. C. 

523 



AMERICAN WOMEN AND THE WORLD WAR 

STATE DIRECTORY 

ALABAMA: 

Women's Committee, Council of National Defense: 
Chairman, Mrs. James F. Hooper, Selma. 

Federation of Women's Clubs: President, Mrs. 
James F. Hooper, Selma. 

Daughters of the American Revolution: Regent, 
Mrs. John Lewis Cobbs, 124 Mobile Street, Mont- 
gomery. 

National League for Women's Service: Chairman, 
Mrs. Thomas Owen. 

United States Employment Service : Headquarters, 
Federal Bldg., Mobile, Henry C. Brownlow in 
charge. 

ARIZONA: 

Women 's Committee, Council of National Defense : 
Chairman, Mrs. Eugene Brady O'Neill, 701 N. 
Central Ave., Phoenix. 

Federation of Women's Clubs: President, Mrs. 
H. A. Morgan, Willcox. 

Daughters of the American Revolution: Regent, 
Mrs. George F. Freeman, 641 North Park Ave- 
nue,^ Tucson. 

United States Employment Service: Headquar- 
ters, 14 Wall St., Phoenix; Frank Brown, acting 
director. 

ARKANSAS: 

Women's Committee, Council of National Defense, 
Chairman, Mrs. Joseph Frauenthal, Conway. 

524 



DIRECTORY 

Federation of Women's Clubs: President, Mrs. 
John I. Moore, Helena. 

Daughters of the American Revolution: Regent, 
Mrs. Samuel P. Davis, 523 East Capitol Avenue, 
Little Rock. 

United States Employment Service, Headquarters, 
27 Postoffice Bldg., Little Rock; Robert B. Keat- 
ing, inspector in charge. 

CALIFORNIA: 

Women's Committee, Council of National Defense: 
Chairman, Mrs. Herbert A. Cable, 719 South 
Hill St., Los Angeles. 

Federation of Women's Clubs: President, Mrs. 
Edward Dexter Knight, 238 San Jose Ave., San 
Francisco. 

Daughters of the American Revolution: Regent, 
Mrs. John C. Lynch, 1845 University Avenue, 
Berkeley. 

National League for Women's Service: Chairman, 
Mrs. Duncan McDuffie. 

United States Employment Service, Headquar- 
ters, Women's and Girls' Division (Northern 
District) No. 2 Appraisers' Bldg., San 
Francisco; Miss Virginia H. Spinks, acting su- 
perintendent. (Southern District) Post Office 
Bldg., Los Angeles, Elizabeth Blackiston in 
charge. 

COLORADO : 
Women's Committee, Council of National Defense: 
Chairman, Mrs. W. H. Kistler, Room 39 State 
House, Denver. 

525 



AMERICAN WOMEN AND THE WORLD WAR 

Federation of Women's Clubs: President, Miss 

Adam J. Weiss, Del Norte. 
Daughters of the American Revolution: Regent, 

Mrs. Gerald L. Schuyler, 1244 Detroit Street, 

Denver. 
National League for Women's Service: Chairman, 

Mrs. J. B. Grant. 
United States Employment Service, Headquarters, 

Women's and Girls' Division, 355 Federal Bldg., 

Denver, Katherine M. Herring, clerk in charge. 

CONNECTICUT : 

Women's Committee, Council of National Defense: 
Chairman, Miss Caroline Ruutz-Rees, State Cap- 
itol, Hartford. 

Federation of Women's Clubs: President, Mrs. 
Edward H. Smiley, 244 Collins Street, Hart- 
ford. 

Daughters of the American Revolution: Regent, 
Mrs. John Laidlaw Buel, East Meadows, Litch- 
field. 

National League for Women's Service: Chairman, 
Mrs. William E. D. Scott. 

United States Employment Service, Headquarters, 
Hartford, 

DELAWARE : 

Women 's Committee, Council of National Defense : 
Chairman, Mrs. Charles R. Miller, Wilming- 
ton. 

Federation of Women's Clubs: President,, Miss 
Ray Heidrick, Bridgeville. 

Daughters of the American Revolution: Regent, 

526 



DIRECTORY 

Mrs. George C. Hall, 706 West Street, Wilming- 
ton. 

United States Employment Service, Headquarters, 
Old Federal Bldg., Wilmington, A. G. Benkhart, 
acting director. 

DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA: 

Women's Committee, Council of National Defense: 
Chairman, Mrs. Archibald Hopkins, 509 Wilkins 
Bldg., Washington, D. C. 

Federation of Women's Clubs: President, Mrs. 
Court F. Wood, 311 East Capital Street, Wash- 
ington, D. C. 

Daughters of the American Revolution: Regent, 
Mrs. Gaius M. Brumbaugh, 905 Massachusetts 
Avenue. 

United States Employment Service, Headquarters, 
Women's and Girls' Division, Department of 
Labor, Washington, D. C, Grace Porter Hopkins, 
acting superintendent. 

FLORIDA: 

Woman's Committee, Council of National Defense: 
Chairman, Mrs. William Hocker, Ocala. 

Federation of Women's Clubs: President, Mrs. 
W. S. Jennings, Jacksonville. 

Daughters of the American Revolution: Regent, 
Mrs. Arthur B. Gilkes, Riverside Avenue, Jack- 
sonville. 

National League for Women's Service: Chairman, 
Mrs. William B. Young. 

United States Employment Service, Headquarters, 
Federal Bldg., Jacksonville; Gideon B. Travis, 

527 



AMERICAN WOMEN AND THE WORLD WAR 

inspector, in charge. Sub-branches — Miami, Key 
West, Pensacola, Tampa. 

GEORGIA: 

Woman 's Committee, Council of National Defense : 
Chairman, Mrs. Samuel N. Inman, 552 Peach- 
tree Street, Atlanta. 

Federation of Women's Clubs: President, Mrs. 
Nellie Peters Black, Atlanta. 

Daughters of the American Revolution: Regent, 
Mrs. Howard H. McCall, 301 Ponce de Leon 
Avenue, Atlanta. 

National League for Women's Service: Chairman, 
Mrs. W. L. Peel. 

United States Employment Service; Headquarters, 
Custom House, Savannah ; Edgar T. Whatley, in- 
spector, in charge. 

ILLINOIS: 

Woman's Committee, Council of National Defense: 
Chairman, Mrs. Joseph T. Bowen, 120 West 
Adams Street, Chicago. 

Federation of Women's Clubs: President, Miss 
Jessie I. Spafford, 401 East State Street, Rock- 
ford. 

Daughters of the American Revolution; Regent, 
Mrs. Frank William Bahnsen, 1720 22nd Street, 
Rock Island. 

United States Employment Service, Headquarters, 
845 S. Wabash Avenue, Chicago. Women and 
Girls' Division, Estelle Barfield, superintend- 
ent. 



528 



DIRECTORY 

IDAHO : 

Woman's Committee, Council of National De- 
fense; Chairman, Mrs. Samuel H. Hays, 612 
Franklin Street, Boise. 

Federation of Women's Clubs; President, Mrs. M. 
J. Sweeley, Twin Falls. 

Daughters of the American Revolution; Regent, 
Mrs. Charles W. Purcell, 1515 Ada Street, 
Boise. 

United States Employment Service, Headquarters, 
Moscow; Wm. J. McConnell, inspector in 
charge. 

INDIANA: 

Woman 's Committee, Council of National Defense ; 
Chairman, Mrs. Charles A. Carlisle, 113 S. Tay- 
lor Street, South Bend. 

Federation of Women's Clubs; President, Mrs. 
Carolyn R. Fairbank, 310 West Berry Street, 
Fort Wayne. 

Daughters of the American Revolution; Regent, 
Mrs. Henry A. Beck, 1902 N. New Jersey Avenue, 
Indianapolis. 

National League for Woman's Services; Chairman, 
Miss Julia E. Landers. 

United States Employment Service, Headquarters, 
319 Federal Bldg., Indianapolis. Women and 
Girls' Division; Miss Morna Hickam in charge. 

IOWA: 

Woman's Committee, Council of National Defense; 
Chairman, Mrs. Francis E. Whitley, Webster 
City. 

529 



AMERICAN WOMEN AND THE WORLD WAR 

Federation of Women's Clubs; President, Mrs. 

Francis E. Whitley, Webster City. 
Daughters of the American Revolution; Regent, 

Mrs. Dixie Cornell Gebhardt, 1205 Second Street, 

Knoxville. 
National League for Woman's Service; Chairman, 

Mrs. F. J. Mansfield. 
United States Employment Service, Headquarters, 

1116 Capitol Avenue, Des Moines. 

KANSAS: 

Woman's Committee, Council of National De- 
fense; Chairman, Mrs. David W. Mulvane, To- 
peka. 

Federation of Women's Clubs; President, Mrs. J. 
M. Miller, Council Grove. 

Daughters of the American Revolution; Regent, 
Miss Catherine Campbell, 316 Willow Street, Ot- 
tawa. 

KENTUCKY: 

Woman's Committee, Council of National Defense; 

Chairman, Mrs. Helm Bruce, 1411 Third Avenue, 

Louisville. 
Federation of Women's Clubs; President, Mrs. 

Morris W. Bartlett, Lawrenceburg. 
Daughters of the American Revolution; Regent, 

Mrs. Ely Gaither Boone, 1409 Broadway, 

Paducah. 
National League for Woman's Service; Chairman, 

Miss Mary Johnstone. 



530 



DIRECTORY 

LOUISIANA: 

Woman's Committee, Council of National Defense; 
Chairman, Miss Hilda Phelps, Room 206 St. 
Charles Hotel, New Orleans. 

Federation of Women's Clubs; President, Mrs. 
John Dallas Wilkinson, 624 Eagan Street, 
Shreveport. 

Daughters of American Revolution; Regent, Mrs. 
Taliaferro Alexander, 853 Cotton Street, Shreve- 
port. 

National League for Woman's Service; Chairman, 
Mrs. Philip Werlein. 

United States Employment Service; Headquarters, 
City Hall, New Orleans: H. A. M. Jacobsen, in- 
spector in charge. 

MAINE : 

Woman 's Committee, Council of National Defense ; 
Chairman, Mrs. Frederick H. Abbott, Saco. 

Federation of Women's Clubs; President, Miss 
Grace A. Wing, 202 Summer Street, Auburn. 

Daughters of the American Revolution, Regent, 
Mrs. W. G. Chapman, 482 Cumberland Avenue, 
West End Station, Portland. 

United States Employment Service; Headquarters, 
Custom House, Portland; Timothy Elliott, in- 
spector in charge. 

MASSACHUSETTS: 

Woman's Committee, Council of National Defense; 
Chairman, Mrs. Nathaniel Thayer, State House, 
Boston. 

531 



AMERICAN WOMEN AND THE WORLD WAR 

Federation of Women's Clubs; President, Mrs. 
Herbert J. Gumey, 188 Warren Avenue, Wollas- 
ton. 

Daughters of the American Revolution; Regent, 
Mrs. Frank Dexter Ellison, 44 Clark Street, Bel- 
mont. 

National League for Woman's Service; Chairman, 
Miss Betty Porter. 

United States Employment Service; Headquar- 
ters, 53 Canal Street, Boston; H. A. Stevens, 
Director of Employment. Sub-branch, New 
Bedford. 

MARYLAND: 

Woman's Committee, Council of National Defense; 

Chairman, Mrs. Edward Shoemaker, 518 N. 

Charles Street, Baltimore. 
Federation of Women's Clubs; President, Mrs. 

Francis Sanderson, Piedmont Avenue, Wal- 

brook. 

Daughters of the American Revolution; Regent, 

Mrs. Arthur Lee Bosley, 1406 Mt. Royal Avenue, 

Baltimore. 
United States Employment Service; Headquarters, 

Stewart Bldg., Baltimore; Women and Girls' 

Division, Nannie Irvine in charge. 

MINNESOTA: 

Woman's Committee, Council of National Defense; 

Chairman, Mrs. Thomas J. Winter, 2617 Dean 

Boulevard, Minneapolis. 
Federation of Women's Clubs, President, Mrs. 

William T. Coe, Wayzata. 

532 



DIRECTORY 

Daughters of the American Revolution; Regent, 

Mrs. James T. Morris, 2109 Blaisdell Avenue, 

Minneapolis. 
National League for Woman's Service; Chairman, 

Mrs. C. A. Severance. 
United States Employment Service; Headquarters, 

Federal Bldg., Minneapolis ; Charles W. Seaman, 

Acting Director. 

MICHIGAN: 

"Woman's Committee, Council of National Defense; 
Chairman, Mrs. Caroline Bartlett Crane, Kala- 
mazoo. 

Federation of Women's Clubs; President, Mrs. 
Florence I. Bulson, 1004 Francis Street, Jack- 
son. 

Daughters of the American Revolution; Regent, 
Mrs. William Henry Wait, 1706 Cambridge 
Road, Ann Arbor. 

National League for Woman's Service; Chairman, 
Miss Helen E. Keep. 

United States Employment Service; Headquarters, 
Old Post Office Bldg., Detroit; Benjamin J. 
Sand, Acting Director; Sub-branch, Sault Ste. 
Marie. 

MISSISSIPPI: 

Woman's Committee, Council of National Defense; 
Chairman, Mrs. Edward McGehee, Como. 

Federation of Women's Clubs; President, Mrs. Ed- 
ward McGehee, Como. 

Daughters of the American Revolution; Regent, 
Mrs. E. F. Noel, Lexington. 

533 



AMERICAN WOMEN AND THE WORLD WAR 

National League for Woman's Service; Chairman, 

Mrs. Daisy McLauren Stevens. 
United States Employment Service; Headquarters, 

Post Office Bldg., Gulf port; Hunter M. Course, 

inspector in charge. 

MISSOURI: 
Woman's Committee, Council of National Defense; 

Chairman, Mrs. B. F. Bush, 905 Locust Street, 

St. Louis. 
Federation of Women's Clubs; President, Mrs. Wil- 
liam R. Chiwis, 4232 West Pine Blvd., St. 

Louis. 
Daughters of the American Revolution; Regent, 

Mrs. William R. Painter, Jefferson City. 
National League for Woman's Service; Chairman, 

Mrs. J. F. Binnie. 
United States Employment Service; Headquarters, 

(Eastern District) 19 N. 8th Street, St. Louis; 

(Western District) 804 Grand Avenue, Kansas 

City; Acting Director of Eastern District, W. R. 

King; Acting Director of Western Division, A. 

L. Barkman. 

MONTANA: 

Woman's Committee, Council of National Defense; 
Chairman, Mrs. Tyler B. Thompson, Mis- 
soula. 

Federation of Women's Clubs; President, Mrs. E. 
L. Houston, Bozeman. 

Daughters of the American Revolution; Regent, 
Mrs. Charles A. Blackburn, 809 West Silver 
Street, Butte. 

534 



DIRECTORY 

United States Employment Service; Headquarters, 
Power Building, Helena; Charles K. Andrews, 
acting director. 

NEBRASKA : 

Woman 's Committee, Council of National Defense ; 

Chairman, Miss Sarka B. Hrbkova, 308 Frater- 

ity Bldg., Lincoln. 
Federation of Women's Clubs; President, Mrs. J. 

N. Paul, St. Paul. 
Daughters of the American Revolution; Regent, 

Mrs. Ellet Grant Drake, 606 North 6th Street, 

Beatrice. 
National League for Woman's Service; Chairman, 

Mrs. W. G. L. Taylor. 
United States Emplojnnent Service; Headquarters, 

County Court House, Omaha; M. A. Coykendall, 

inspector in charge. 

NEVADA : 

Woman 's Committee, Council of National Defense ; 

Chairman, Mrs. Pearis Buckner Ellis, Carson 

City. 
Federation of Women's Clubs; President, Mrs. 

P. B. Ells, 116 N. Carson Street, Carson 

City. 
Daughters of the American Revolution ; Regent, 

Mrs. Charles Silvey Sprague, Goldfield. 
National League for Woman's Service; Chairman, 

Mrs. Hugh Brown. 
United States Emplo3T2ient Service; Headquarters, 

Reno ; Neil McGee, inspector in charge. 

535 



AMERICAN WOMEN AND THE WORLD WAR 

NEW HAMPSHIRE : 

Woman's Committee, Council of National Defense; 

Chairman, Mrs. Mary I. Wood, Portsmouth, P. 

0. Drawer 88. 
Federation of Women's Clubs; President, Mrs. 

Frederick J. Shepard, East Derry. 
Daughters of the American Revolution; Regent, 

Miss Will Bernard Howe, Huntwood Terrace, 

Concord. 
National League for Woman's Service; Chairman, 

Mrs. William H. Schofield. 

NEW JERSEY: 

Woman 's Committee, Council of National Defense ; 
Chairman, Mrs. Charles W. Stockton, Ridge- 
wood. 

Federation of Women's Clubs; President, Mrs. 
Charles W. Stockton, Ridgewood. 

Daughters of the American Revolution; Regent, 
Mrs. William Dusenberry Sherrerd, Highland 
Avenue, Haddonfield. 

United States Employment Service; Headquarters, 
9 Franklin Street, Newark; Women and Girls' 
Division, Margarette Neale, Acting Superin- 
tendent. 

NEW MEXICO: 

Woman's Committee, Council of National Defense; 
Chairman, Mrs. Washington E. Lindsey, San- 
ta Fe. 

Federation of Women's Clubs; President, Mrs. 
George E. Ladd, Mesilla Park. 

Daughters of the American Revolution; Regent, 

536 



DIRECTORY 

Mrs. Singleton M. Ashenfelter, 702 Bayard 
Street, Silver City. 
United States Employment Service; Headquarters, 
261 San Francisco Street, Santa Fe; Karl W. 
Greene, acting director. 

NEW YORK: 

Woman 's Committee, Council of National Defense ; 
Chairman, Mrs. William Grant Brown, Hotel 
Astor, 2350 Broadway, New York City. 

Federation of Women's Clubs ; President, Mrs. Wil- 
liam Grant Brown, Bretton Hall, Broadway and 
86th Street, New York City. 

Daughters of the American Revolution; Regent, 
Mrs. Benjamin F. Spraker, Palatine Bridge. 

National League for Woman's Service; Chairman, 
Mrs. Alexander Trowbridge. 

United States Employment Service; Headquarters, 
Room 8 U. S. Barge Office, New York City; P. A. 
Donohue, Director; Sub-branch, Room 8 Federal 
Bldg., Buffalo ; 22 East 22nd Street, Mrs. Hilda 
Mulhauzer Richards in charge. 

NORTH CAROLINA: 

Woman's Committee, Council of National Defense; 

Chairman, Mrs. Eugene Reilley, Charlotte. 
Federation of Women's Clubs; President, Mrs. 

Thomas W. Lingle, Davidson. 
Daughters of the American Revolution; Regent, 

Mrs. Theodore S. Morrison, 287 Pearson Drive, 

Asheville. 
National League for Woman's Service; Chairman, 

Mrs. Lindsay Patterson. 

537 



AMERICAN WOMEN AND THE WORLD WAR 

NORTH DAKOTA: 

Woman's Committee, Council of National Defense; 

Chairman, Mrs. Mary Darrow Weible, Fargo. 
Federation of Women's Clubs; President, Mrs. H. 

G. Vick, Cavalier. 
Daughters of the American Revolution ; Regent, 

Mrs. George Morley Young, Valley City. 

OHIO: 

Woman's Committee, Council of National Defense; 
Chairman, Mrs. George Zimmerman, 224 Birch- 
ard Street, Fremont. 

Federation of Women's Clubs; President, Mrs. 
George Zimmerman, 224 Birchard Street, Fre- 
mont. 

Daughters of the American Revolution; Regent, 
Mrs. Edward Lansing Harris, 6719 Euclid Av- 
enue, Cleveland. 

National League for Woman's Service; Chairman, 
Mrs. George Hoadley. 

United States Employment Service; Headquarters, 
Post Office Bldg., Cleveland; J. A. Fluckey, 
acting director. 

OKLAHOMA: 

Woman's Committee, Council of National Defense; 

Chairman, Mrs. Eugene B. Lawson, 518 Osage 

Street, Wowata. 
Federation of Women's Clubs; President, Mrs. Tom 

Hope, Ada. 
Daughters of the American Revolution; Regent, 

Mrs. Walter D. Elrod, 900 N. Grand Avenue, 

Okmulgee. 

538 



DIRECTORY 

National League for Woman ^s Service; Chairman, 
Mrs. S. W. Parish. 

OREGON: 

Woman 's Committee, Council of National Defense ; 
Chairman, Mrs. Charles H. Castner, Hood 
River. 

Federation of Women's Clubs; President, Mrs. 
Charles H. Castner, Hood River. 

Daughters of the American Revolution ; Regent, 
Mrs. Isaac L. Patterson, Eola Road, Salem. 

United States Employment Service; Headquarters, 
249 Ankeny St., Portland; R. P. Bonham, di- 
rector. 

RHODE ISLAND : 

Woman's Committee, Council of National Defense; 

Chairman, Mrs. Rush Sturges, State House, 

Providence. 
Federation of Women's Clubs; President, Mrs. 

Horace G. Bissell, East Greenwich. 
Daughters of the American Revolution ; Regent, 

Mrs. Albert L. Calder, Second, 35 S. Angell 

Street, Providence. 
National League for Woman's Service; Chairman, 

Mrs. Rush Sturges. 
United States Employment Service; Headquarters, 

222 Federal Bldg., Providence; James A. Sul- 
livan, inspector. 

SOUTH CAROLINA: 

Woman's Committee, Council of National Defense; 
Chairman, Mrs. F. Louise Mayes, Greenville. 

539 



AMERICAN WOMEN AND THE WORLD WAR 

Federation of Women's Clubs; President, Mrs. J. 
L. Coker, Jr., Hartsville. 

Daughters of the American Revolution; Regent, 
Mrs. E. Walker, Duvall, Cheraw. 

National League for Woman's Service; Chairman, 
Miss Jane Evans. 

United States Employment Service; Headquarters, 
Custom House, Charleston; W. V. Howard, act- 
ing director. 

PENNSYLVANIA: 

Woman 's Committee, Council of National Defense ; 

Chairman, Mrs. J. Willis Martin, 1607 Walnut 

Street, Philadelphia. 
Federation of Women's Clubs; President, Mrs. 

Ronald P. Gleason, 947 Clay Avenue, 

Scranton. 
Daughters of the American Revolution; Regent, 

Mrs. Anthony Wayne Cook, Hotel Schenley, 

Pittsburgh. 
National League for Woman's Service; Chairman, 

Mrs. Edgar W. Baird. 
United States Employment Service; Headquarters, 

132 S. Third Street, Philadelphia; J. L. Hughes, 

acting director. 

SOUTH DAKOTA: 

Woman's Committee, Council of National Defense: 
Chairman, Dr. Helen F. Peabody, Sioux 
Falls. 

Federation of Women's Clubs: President, Mrs. 
Gertrude B. Gunderson, Vermillion. 

Daughters of the American Revolution: Regent, 

540 



DIRECTORY 

Mrs. E. St. Claire Snyder, 617 Second Street, 
Watertown. 
National Lea^e for Woman's Service: Chair- 
man, Mrs. J. E. Bird. 

TENNESSEE : 

Woman's Committee, Council of National Defense: 
Chairman, Mrs. George W. Denney, Knoxville. 

Federation of Women's Clubs; President, Mrs. 
George W. Denney, Knoxville. 

Daughters of the American Revolution: Regent, 
Mrs. Thomas Polk, 583 East Main Street, Jack- 
son. 

National League for Woman's Service: Chairman, 
Mrs. Jesse Overton. 

United States Employment Service: Headquar- 
ters, Post Office Bldg., Memphis; J. H. Ware, 
Inspector. 

TEXAS: 

Woman 's Committee, Council of National Defense : 
Chairman, Mrs. Fred Fleming, 1934 N. Carroll 
Avenue, Dallas. 

Federation of Women's Clubs; President, Mrs. 
Fred Fleming, 1934 N. Carroll Avenue, 
Dallas. 

Daughters of the American Revolution: Regent, 
Mrs. James Lowry Smith, 1101 Taylor Street, 
Amarillo. 

National League for Woman's Service: Chair- 
man, Mrs. Walter B. Sharpe. 

United States Employment Service: Headquar- 
ters, (Southern District), American National In- 

541 



AMERICAN WOMEN AND THE WORLD WAR 

surance Company Bldg., Galveston; James B. 
Bryan, Acting Director. (Western District), El 
Paso; Perry P. Young, Inspector in Charge. 
(Northern District), Fort Worth; William H. 
Robb, Inspector in Charge. Sub-branches, Hous- 
ton, Brownsville, Laredo, Eagle Pass, San An- 
tonio, San Angelo, Del Rio, Big Spring, 
Amarillo. 

UTAH: 

Woman's Committee, Council of National Defense: 
Chairman, Mrs. W. N. Williams, Bishop Bldg., 
Salt Lake City. 

Federation of Women's Clubs: President, Mrs. 
Edward Bichsel, 718 25th Street, Ogden. 

Daughters of the American Revolution: Regent, 
Mrs. L. C. Miller, 943 East First South Street, 
Salt Lake City. 

United States Employment Service: Headquar- 
ters, Federal Bldg., Salt Lake City; D. Arthur 
Plumly, Acting Director. 

VERMONT : 

Woman's Committee, Council of National Defense: 

Chairman, Mrs. John E. Weeks, 93 Maple Street, 

Middlebury. 
Federation of Women's Clubs: President, Mrs. 

Robert E. Smith, White River Junction. 
Daughters of the American Revolution: Regent, 

Mrs. Edward Sprague Marsh, Brandon. 
National League for Woman's Service; Chairman, 

Mrs. Thornton F. Turner. 

542 



DIRECTORY 

VIRGINIA: 

Woman's Committee, Council of National Defense: 
Chairman, Mrs. B. B. Munford, 603 E. Grace 
Street, Richmond. 

Federation of Women's Clubs: President, Miss 
Helen Norris Cummings, 606 Cameron Street, 
Alexandria. 

Daughters of the American Revolution: Regent, 
Miss Alethea Serpell, 902 Westover Avenue, Nor- 
folk. 

National League for Woman 's Service : Chairman, 
Mrs. William W. Sale. 

United States Employment Service: Headquar- 
ters, 119 West Main Street, Norfolk; W. R. Mor- 
ton, Inspector in Charge. 

WASHINGTON: 

Woman 's Committee, Council of National Defense : 
Chairman, Mrs. Winfield R. Smith, 107 Cobb 
Bldg., Seattle. 

Federation of Women's Clubs: President, Mrs. 
Solon Shedd, Pullman. 

Daughters of the American Revolution: Regent, 
Mrs. Overton Gentry Ellis, 1609 Water Street, 
Olympia. 

National League for Woman 's Service : Chairman, 
Mrs. Winfield Smith. 

United States Employment Service: Headquar- 
ters, 1st Avenue & Union Street, Seattle; Law- 
rence Wood, Acting Director ; Sub-branches, Spo- 
kane, Walla Walla, Tacoma, Aberdeen, Everett, 
Bellingham, North Yakima, Friday Harbor, 

543 



AMERICAN WOMEN AND THE WORLD WAR 

Nooksack, Lynden, Custer, Port Townsend, Port 
Angeles. 

WISCONSIN: 

Woman's Committee, Council of National Defense: 
Chairman, Mrs. Henry H. Morgan, State House, 
Madison. 

Federation of Women's Clubs: President, Mrs. L. 
D. Harvey, Menomie. 

Daughters of the American Revolution: Regent, 
Mrs. John P. Hume, 539 Terrace Avenue, Mil- 
waukee. 

National League for Woman's Service : Chairman, 
Mrs. John W. Mariner. 

United States Employment Service: Headquar- 
ters, 809 Manufacturer's Home Building, Mil- 
waukee ; J. C. Hise, Inspector in Charge. 

WEST VIRGINIA: 

Woman's Committee, Council of National Defense: 
Chairman, Mrs. Joseph G. Cochran, 1016 Market 
Street, Parkersburg. 

Federation of Women's Clubs: President, Mrs. 
Joseph G. Cochran, 1016 Market Street, Parkers- 
burg. 

Daughters of the American Revolution: Regent, 
Mrs. Linn Brannon, 236 Center Avenue, 
Weston. 

WYOMING: 

Woman's Committee, Council of National Defense: 
Chairman, Mrs. R. A. Morton, Cheyenne. 

Federation of Women's Clubs: President, Mrs. R. 
A. Morton, Cheyenne. 

544 

BD t 5 6 



DIRECTORY 

Daughters of the American Revolution: Regent, 
Mrs. Edward Gillette, Sheridan. 

United States Employment Service; Headquar- 
ters, Cheyenne. 

ALASKA: 

Woman's Committee, Council of National Defense: 

Chairman, Mrs. Thomas J. Donohoe, Valdez. 

Federation of Women's Clubs: President, Mrs. 

Thomas J. Donohue, Valdez. 

(1) 



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